Multiple targets enclosure by robotic swarm

Target enclosure by autonomous robots is useful for many practical applications, for example, surveillance of disaster sites. Scalability is important for autonomous robots because a larger group is more robust against breakdown, accidents, and failure. However, since the traditional models have discussed only the cases in which minimum number of robots enclose a single target, there has been no study on the utilization of the redundant number of robots. In this paper, to achieve a highly scalable target enclosure model about the number of target to enclose, we introduce swarm based task assignment capability to Takayama’s enclosure model. The original model discussed only single target environment but it is well suited for applying to the environments with multiple targets. We show the robots can enclose the targets without predefined position assignment by analytic discussion based on switched systems and a series of computer simulations. As a consequence of this property, the proposed robots can change their target according to the criterion about robot density while they enclose multiple targets.     

Conflict free coordinated path planning for multiple robots using a dynamic path modification sequence

In this paper, a practically viable approach for conflict free, coordinated motion planning of multiple robots is proposed. The presented approach is a two phase decoupled method that can provide the desired coordination among the participating robots in offline mode. In the first phase, the collision free path with respect to stationary obstacles for each robot is obtained by employing an A* algorithm. In the second phase, the coordination among multiple robots is achieved by resolving conflicts based on a path modification approach. The paths of conflicting robots are modified based on their position in a dynamically computed path modification sequence (PMS). To assess the effectiveness of the developed methodology, the coordination among robots is also achieved by different strategies such as fixed priority sequence allotment for motion of each robot, reduction in the velocities of joints of the robot, and introduction of delay in starting of each robot. The performance is assessed in terms of the length of path traversed by each robot, time taken by the robot to realize the task and computational time. The effectiveness of the proposed approach for multi-robot motion planning is demonstrated with two case studies that considered the tasks with three and four robots. The results obtained from realistic simulation of multi-robot environment demonstrate that the proposed approach assures rapid, concurrent and conflict free coordinated path planning for multiple robots.     

A Bioinspired Neural Network for Real-Time Concurrent Map Building and Complete Coverage Robot Navigation in Unknown Environments

Complete coverage navigation (CCN) requires a special type of robot path planning, where the robots should pass every part of the workspace. CCN is an essential issue for cleaning robots and many other robotic applications. When robots work in unknown environments, map building is required for the robots to effectively cover the complete workspace. Real-time concurrent map building and complete coverage robot navigation are desirable for efficient performance in many applications. In this paper, a novel neural-dynamics-based approach is proposed for real-time map building and CCN of autoxnomous mobile robots in a completely unknown environment. The proposed model is compared with a triangular-cell-map-based complete coverage path planning method (Oh , 2004) that combines distance transform path planning, wall-following algorithm, and template-based technique. The proposed method does not need any templates, even in unknown environments. A local map composed of square or rectangular cells is created through the neural dynamics during the CCN with limited sensory information. From the measured sensory information, a map of the robot's immediate limited surroundings is dynamically built for the robot navigation. In addition, square and rectangular cell map representations are proposed for real-time map building and CCN. Comparison studies of the proposed approach with the triangular-cell-map-based complete coverage path planning approach show that the proposed method is capable of planning more reasonable and shorter collision-free complete coverage paths in unknown environments.      

Adaptive task assignment for multiple mobile robots via swarm intelligence approach

This paper describes an adaptive task assignment method for a team of fully distributed mobile robots with initially identical functionalities in unknown task environments. A hierarchical assignment architecture is established for each individual robot. In the higher hierarchy, we employ a simple self-reinforcement learning model inspired by the behavior of social insects to differentiate the initially identical robots into “specialists” of different task types, resulting in stable and flexible division of labor; on the other hand, in dealing with the cooperation problem of the robots engaged in the same type of task, Ant System algorithm is adopted to organize low-level task assignment. To avoid using a centralized component, a “local blackboard” communication mechanism is utilized for knowledge sharing. The proposed method allows the robot team members to adapt themselves to the unknown dynamic environments, respond flexibly to the environmental perturbations and robustly to the modifications in the team arising from mechanical failure. The effectiveness of the presented method is validated in two different task domains: a cooperative concurrent foraging task and a cooperative collection task.     

Decentralized Coordinated Tracking with Mixed Discrete–Continuous Decisions

In this paper, we study the problem of dynamically positioning a team of mobile robots for target tracking. We treat the coordination of mobile robots for target tracking as a joint team optimization to minimize uncertainty in target state estimates over a fixed horizon. The optimization is inherently a function of both the positioning of robots in continuous space and the assignment of robots to targets in discrete space. Thus, the robot team must make decisions over discrete and continuous variables. In contrast to methods that decouple target assignments and robot positioning, our approach avoids the strong assumption that a robot's utility for observing a target is independent of other robots’ observations. We formulate the optimization as a mixed integer nonlinear program and apply integer relaxation to develop an approximate solution in decentralized form. We demonstrate our coordinated multirobot tracking algorithm both in simulation and using a pair of mobile robotic sensor platforms to track moving pedestrians. Our results show that coupling target assignment and robot positioning realizes coordinated behaviors that are not possible with decoupled methods.     

A neural network approach to complete coverage path planning.

Complete coverage path planning requires the robot path to cover every part of the workspace, which is an essential issue in cleaning robots and many other robotic applications such as vacuum robots, painter robots, land mine detectors, lawn mowers, automated harvesters, and window cleaners. In this paper, a novel neural network approach is proposed for complete coverage path planning with obstacle avoidance of cleaning robots in nonstationary environments. The dynamics of each neuron in the topologically organized neural network is characterized by a shunting equation derived from Hodgkin and Huxley's (1952) membrane equation. There are only local lateral connections among neurons. The robot path is autonomously generated from the dynamic activity landscape of the neural network and the previous robot location. The proposed model algorithm is computationally simple. Simulation results show that the proposed model is capable of planning collision-free complete coverage robot paths.     

An auction behavior-based robotic architecture for service robotics

Service robots have the potential of improving the quality of life and assist with people’s daily activities. Such robots must be capable of operating over long periods of time, performing multiple tasks, and scheduling them appropriately for execution. In addition, service robots must be capable of dealing with tasks whose goals may be in conflict with each other and would need to determine, dynamically, which task to pursue in such a case. Adding to the complexity of the problem is the fact that some task requests may have time constraints—deadlines by which the task has to be completed. Given the dynamic nature of the environment, the robots must make decisions on what tasks to pursue in situations where there could be incomplete or missing information. The robots should also be capable of accepting requests for new tasks or services at runtime, while possibly working on another task. In order to achieve these requirements, this paper presents the Auction Behavior-Based Robotic Architecture that brings the following contributions: (1) it uses an auction mechanism to determine the relevance of a task to run at any given time, (2) it handles multiple user requests while dealing with potentially critical time constraints and incomplete information, (3) it enables long-term robot operation and (4) it allows for dynamic assignment of new tasks. The proposed system is validated on a physical robotic platform, the Segway RMP \(^{\circledR }\) and in simulation.     

Hierarchical multi-robot navigation and formation in unknown environments via deep reinforcement learning and distributed optimization

Compared with a single robot, Multi-robot Systems (MRSs) can undertake more challenging tasks in complex scenarios benefiting from the increased transportation capacity and fault tolerance. This paper presents a hierarchical framework for multi-robot navigation and formation in unknown environments with static and dynamic obstacles, where the robots compute and maintain the optimized formation while making progress to the target together. In the proposed framework, each single robot is capable of navigating to the global target in unknown environments based on its local perception, and only limited communication among robots is required to obtain the optimal formation. Accordingly, three modules are included in this framework. Firstly, we design a learning network based on Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) to address the global navigation task for single robot, which derives end-to-end policies that map the robot’s local perception into its velocity commands. To handle complex obstacle distributions (e.g. narrow/zigzag passage and local minimum) and stabilize the training process, strategies of Curriculum Learning (CL) and Reward Shaping (RS) are combined. Secondly, for an expected formation, its real-time configuration is optimized by a distributed optimization. This configuration considers surrounding obstacles and current formation status, and provides each robot with its formation target. Finally, a velocity adjustment method considering the robot kinematics is designed which adjusts the navigation velocity of each robot according to its formation target, making all the robots navigate to their targets while maintaining the expected formation. This framework allows for formation online reconfiguration and is scalable with the number of robots. Extensive simulations and 3-D evaluations verify that our method can navigate the MRS in unknown environments while maintaining the optimal formation.     

Coordinating heterogeneous teams of robots using temporal symbolic planning

The efficient coordination of a team of heterogeneous robots is an important requirement for exploration, rescue, and disaster recovery missions. In this paper, we present a novel approach to target assignment for heterogeneous teams of robots. It goes beyond existing target assignment algorithms in that it explicitly takes symbolic actions into account. Such actions include the deployment and retrieval of other robots or manipulation tasks. Our method integrates a temporal planning approach with a traditional cost-based planner. The proposed approach was implemented and evaluated in two distinct settings. First, we coordinated teams of marsupial robots. Such robots are able to deploy and pickup smaller robots. Second, we simulated a disaster scenario where the task is to clear blockades and reach certain critical locations in the environment. A similar setting was also investigated using a team of real robots. The results show that our approach outperforms ad-hoc extensions of state-of-the-art cost-based coordination methods and that the approach is able to efficiently coordinate teams of heterogeneous robots and to consider symbolic actions.     

Multisensor-Based Human Detection and Tracking for Mobile Service Robots

One of fundamental issues for service robots is human-robot interaction. In order to perform such a task and provide the desired services, these robots need to detect and track people in the surroundings. In this paper, we propose a solution for human tracking with a mobile robot that implements multisensor data fusion techniques. The system utilizes a new algorithm for laser-based leg detection using the onboard laser range finder (LRF). The approach is based on the recognition of typical leg patterns extracted from laser scans, which are shown to also be very discriminative in cluttered environments. These patterns can be used to localize both static and walking persons, even when the robot moves. Furthermore, faces are detected using the robot's camera, and the information is fused to the legs' position using a sequential implementation of unscented Kalman filter. The proposed solution is feasible for service robots with a similar device configuration and has been successfully implemented on two different mobile platforms. Several experiments illustrate the effectiveness of our approach, showing that robust human tracking can be performed within complex indoor environments.     

Efficient exploration of unknown indoor environments using a team of mobile robots

Whenever multiple robots have to solve a common task, they need to coordinate their actions to carry out the task efficiently and to avoid interferences between individual robots. This is especially the case when considering the problem of exploring an unknown environment with a team of mobile robots. To achieve efficient terrain coverage with the sensors of the robots, one first needs to identify unknown areas in the environment. Second, one has to assign target locations to the individual robots so that they gather new and relevant information about the environment with their sensors. This assignment should lead to a distribution of the robots over the environment in a way that they avoid redundant work and do not interfere with each other by, for example, blocking their paths. In this paper, we address the problem of efficiently coordinating a large team of mobile robots. To better distribute the robots over the environment and to avoid redundant work, we take into account the type of place a potential target is located in (e.g., a corridor or a room). This knowledge allows us to improve the distribution of robots over the environment compared to approaches lacking this capability. To autonomously determine the type of a place, we apply a classifier learned using the AdaBoost algorithm. The resulting classifier takes laser range data as input and is able to classify the current location with high accuracy. We additionally use a hidden Markov model to consider the spatial dependencies between nearby locations. Our approach to incorporate the information about the type of places in the assignment process has been implemented and tested in different environments. The experiments illustrate that our system effectively distributes the robots over the environment and allows them to accomplish their mission faster compared to approaches that ignore the place labels.     

A hierarchical long short term safety framework for efficient robot manipulation under uncertainty

Safe and efficient robot manipulation in uncertain clustered environments has been recognized to be a key element of future intelligent industrial robots. Unlike traditional robots that work in structured and deterministic environments, intelligent industrial robots need to operate in dynamically changing and stochastic environments with limited computation resources. This paper proposed a hierarchical long short term safety system (HLSTS), where the upper layer contains a long term planner for global reference trajectory generation and the lower layer contains a short term planner for real-time emergent safety maneuvers. Additionally, a hierarchical coordinator is proposed to enable smooth coordination of the two layers by compensating the communication delay through trajectory modification. The theoretical results verify that the long term planner can always find a feasible trajectory (feasibility guarantee); and the short term planner can guarantee safety in the probabilistic sense. The proposed architecture is validated in industrial settings in both simulations and real robot experiments, where the robot is interacting with randomly moving obstacles while performing a goal reaching task. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed HLSTS framework not only guarantees safety but also improves task efficiency.     

Effective landmark placement for accurate and reliable mobile robot navigation

Being able to navigate accurately is one of the fundamental capabilities of a mobile robot to effectively execute a variety of tasks including docking, transportation, and manipulation. As real-world environments often contain changing or ambiguous areas, existing features can be insufficient for mobile robots to establish a robust navigation behavior. A popular approach to overcome this problem and to achieve accurate localization is to use artificial landmarks. In this paper, we consider the problem of optimally placing such artificial landmarks for mobile robots that repeatedly have to carry out certain navigation tasks. Our method aims at finding the minimum number of landmarks for which a bound on the maximum deviation of the robot from its desired trajectory can be guaranteed with high confidence. The proposed approach incrementally places landmarks utilizing linearized versions of the system dynamics of the robot, thus allowing for an efficient computation of the deviation guarantee. We evaluate our approach in extensive experiments carried out both in simulations and with real robots. The experiments demonstrate that our method outperforms other approaches and is suitable for long-term operation of mobile robots.     

Efficiency evaluation of robots in machining applications using industrial performance measure

The paper is devoted to the robotic based machining. The main focus is made on robot accuracy in milling operation and evaluation robot capacity to perform the task with desired precision. Particular attention is paid to the proper modeling of manipulator stiffness properties and the cutting force estimation. In contrast to other works, the robot performance is evaluated using the circularity norm that evaluates the contortion degree of the benchmark circle to be machined. The developed approach is applied to five industrial robots of KUKA family, which have been ranked for several machining tasks. The validity of the proposed technique was confirmed by experimental study dealing with robot-based machining of circular grooves for several workpiece samples and different locations.     

多自治水下机器人多任务分配的自组织算法

针对自治水下机器人（AUV）研究中的多机器人多任务分配问题,提出一种基于自组织映射（SOM）神经网络的多AUV多目标分配策略.将目标点的位置坐标作为SOM神经网络的输入向量进行自组织竞争计算,输出为对应的AUV机器人,从而控制一组AUV在不同的地点完成不同的任务,使机器人按照优化的路径规则到达指定的目标位置.为了表明所提出算法的有效性,给出了二维、三维作业环境中的仿真实验结果.     

Motion in ambiguity: Coordinated active global localization for multiple robots

The task of the robot in localization is to find out where it is, through sensing and motion. In environments which possess relatively few features that enable a robot to unambiguously determine its location, global localization algorithms can result in ‘multiple hypotheses’ locations of a robot. This is inevitable with global localization algorithms, as the local environment seen by a robot repeats at other parts of the map. Thus, for effective localization, the robot has to be actively guided to those locations where there is a maximum chance of eliminating most of the ambiguous states — which is often referred to as ‘active localization’. When extended to multi-robotic scenarios where all robots possess more than one hypothesis of their position, there is an opportunity to do better by using robots, apart from obstacles, as ‘hypotheses resolving agents’. The paper presents a unified framework which accounts for the map structure as well as measurement amongst robots, while guiding a set of robots to locations where they can singularize to a unique state. The strategy shepherds the robots to places where the probability of obtaining a unique hypothesis for a set of multiple robots is a maximum. Another aspect of framework demonstrates the idea of dispatching localized robots to locations where they can assist a maximum of the remaining unlocalized robots to overcome their ambiguity, named as ‘coordinated localization’. The appropriateness of our approach is demonstrated empirically in both simulation & real-time (on Amigo-bots) and its efficacy verified. Extensive comparative analysis portrays the advantage of the current method over others that do not perform active localization in a multi-robotic sense. It also portrays the performance gain by considering map structure and robot placement to actively localize over methods that consider only one of them or neither. Theoretical backing stems from the proven completeness of the method for a large category of diverse environments.     

通信距离约束下异构水下爬游机器人任务分配

为了保证执行任务的水下爬游机器人之间时刻保持信息交互,提出了一种带通信距离约束的异构水下爬游机器人集群任务分配方法;首先,建立了异构水下爬游机器人集群的任务分配数学模型;其次,分析了多水下爬游机器人通信距离、航程等约束条件;最后,采用蚁群优化算法对异构水下爬游机器人集群的任务分配问题进行求解,在满足约束条件情况下实现了多爬游机器人总航行距离最短;仿真验证了该方法在通信距离约束下实现多水下爬游机器人任务分配的有效性.     

Path planning strategy for autonomous mobile robot navigation using Petri-GA optimisation

In this paper, a novel knowledge based genetic algorithm (GA) for path planning of multiple robots for multiple targets seeking behaviour in presence of obstacles is proposed. GA technique has been incorporated in Petri-Net model to make an integrated navigational controller. The proposed algorithm is based upon an iterative non-linear search, which utilises matches between observed geometry of the environment and a priori map of position locations, to estimate a suitable heading angle, there by correcting the position and orientation of the robots to find targets. This knowledge based GA is capable of finding an optimal or near optimal robot path in complex environments. The Petri-GA model can handle inter robot collision avoidance more effectively than the stand alone GA. The resulting navigation algorithm has been implemented on real mobile robots and tested in various environments to validate the developed control scheme.     

不确定环境下多机器人的动态编队控制

提出了一种不确定环境下多机器人的动态编队控制方法．通过队形参数矩阵确立多机器人之间的相对 位置关系,将全局队形控制问题转化为跟随机器人离轴点对虚机器人（与领航机器人运动方向一致,且对领航机器 人保持期望的相对距离和观测方位角）离轴点的跟踪．基于建立的跟随机器人和领航机器人之间的误差跟踪系统模 型设计相应控制律实现队形保持,并提出了防止机器人与障碍物及其它机器人碰撞的避障策略．仿真结果表明了所 提方法的可行性和有效性．     

Optimized Stochastic Policies for Task Allocation in Swarms of Robots

We present a scalable approach to dynamically allocating a swarm of homogeneous robots to multiple tasks, which are to be performed in parallel, following a desired distribution. We employ a decentralized strategy that requires no communication among robots. It is based on the development of a continuous abstraction of the swarm obtained by modeling population fractions and defining the task allocation problem as the selection of rates of robot ingress and egress to and from each task. These rates are used to determine probabilities that define stochastic control policies for individual robots, which, in turn, produce the desired collective behavior. We address the problem of computing rates to achieve fast redistribution of the swarm subject to constraint(s) on switching between tasks at equilibrium. We present several formulations of this optimization problem that vary in the precedence constraints between tasks and in their dependence on the initial robot distribution. We use each formulation to optimize the rates for a scenario with four tasks and compare the resulting control policies using a simulation in which 250 robots redistribute themselves among four buildings to survey the perimeters.