IROS 2004, Sendai, Japan - Workshop
WWF2
Networked
Robotics: Issues, Architectures and Applications
Organizer(s):
Gerard
T. McKee (Univ. of Reading, UK) and Paul S. Schenker (Jet Propulsion Lab.,
USA)
Location and
Time
Wednesday, September 29:
09:25-16:45 (full-day), Meeting Room 2
Keynote
Speaker
Communication-sensitive
Planning and Behavior for Multi-robot Teams
Ronald C. Arkin, Georgia Institute of Technology,
USA
As part of DARPA's
MARS Vision 2020 program, researchers at the Georgia Tech Mobile Robot
Laboratory are developing a host of new techniques in support of reliable
mission execution for a team of robots in the presence of unreliable
communication. Specifically, behavioral techniques for communications
preservation, communications recovery, and planning for robust communications
are all considered. In this talk, new specific techniques developed for use in
mobile ad hoc networks operating in dynamic and unstructured environments are
presented. Results are shown from simulation studies, robotic experiments
on the Georgia Tech campus, and field tests conducted at Ft. Benning,
Georgia.
PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
|
09:25 |
Welcome and
Introduction
|
|
09:30 – 10:00 |
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Communication-sensitive
Planning and Behavior for Multi-robot Teams
Ronald C. Arkin,
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
|
|
10:00 – 10:20 |
Networked Robotics and Space
Applications
Paul Schenker, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA;
Gerard McKee, The University of Reading, UK |
|
10:20 – 10:40 |
Networked intelligence and robotics on Japan
projects
Toru Yamaguchi,
Eri Sato, and Jun Kawakatsu, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology,
Japan |
|
10:40 – 11:00 |
Dynamical Systems
Approach to Decision Making in a Network of Distributed Autonomous
Agents
Robert Kozma,
University of Memphis, Walter J. Freeman, University of California at
Berkeley, and Edward Tunstel, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
USA |
|
11:00 – 11:20 |
COFFEE |
|
11:20 – 11:40 |
Games as a model
for robot coordination
Henrik I Christensen, Kungl Tekniska Högskolan,
Sweden |
|
11:40 – 12:00 |
Intelligent Space
based Network Robotics
Hideki Hashimoto, Péter T. Szemes, Kazuyuki
Morioka, The University of Tokyo, Japan |
|
12:00 – 12:20 |
Network of Aerial
and Ground Vehicles for Search, Identification and
Localization
B.
Grochalsky, R. Swaminathan, J. Keller, Vijay Kumar and George Pappas,
University of
Pennsylvania, USA |
|
12:20 – 12:40 |
Control of Vehicle
Cooperative Behavior using Coupled Oscillator
Network
Toshio Fukuda and
Yusuke Ikemoto, Nagoya University, Japan |
|
12:40 – 13:40 |
LUNCH |
|
13:40 – 14:00 |
Robot
Spaces, Module Networks and Distributed Robot
Architectures
Gerard McKee, Duncan Baker, The University of
Reading, UK, and Paul Schenker, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
USA |
|
14:00 – 14:20 |
Principled
Approaches to the Design of Multi-Robot Systems
Chris Jones, Dylan Shell, Maja J Matarić,
University of Southern California, and Brian Gerkey, Stanford University,
USA |
|
14:20 – 14:40 |
Software
Reconfigurability for Networked Heterogeneous Mobile
Robots
Lynne E. Parker and
Fang Tang, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA |
|
14:40 – 15:00 |
Evolution Robotics Software
Platform
Paolo
Pirjanian, Evolution Robotics, Inc., USA |
|
15:00 – 15:20 |
COFFEE |
|
15:20 – 15:40 |
Dynamic Robot
Networks: A Coordination Platform for Multi-Robot
Systems
Christopher M
Clark, Stephen M Rock and Jean-Claude Latombe, Stanford University,
USA |
|
15:40 – 16:00 |
Behavioral control
of robot teams
João
Sequeira Isabel Ribeiro, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon,
Portugal |
|
16:00 – 16:20 |
From Distributed
Robotics to Sensor Networks
Gaurav S. Sukhatme, University of Southern
California, USA |
|
16:20 – 16:40 |
An Information
Framework for the Modelling and Design of Autonomous Systems of
Systems
Paul Thompson,
David Cole, Alex Makarenko, Salah Sukkarieh, The University of Sydney,
Australia |
|
16:40 |
CLOSE |
Workshop
Abstract
Networked robotics is a
fast expanding area of research integrating robotics, networking, multimedia and
component-based software technologies in support of local, remote, distributed,
cooperative and multi-robot system architectures and operations.
Networked robotics is thus a new framework in which to explore and extend
traditional problems in robotics, while creating important new robotics
applications. Specifically, the traditional approach to the
design of robotics systems – designing an architecture that integrates sensors
and actuators within a single physical platform under centralized control – is
changing. The emerging view, as motivated by new, larger scale applications in
space, military, undersea, service, and factory floor is one in which robotic
sensors, actuators, computing, and human interfaces are distributed across
multiple physical robot platforms, possibly in time-delayed and/or asynchronous
communications. This one-day workshop brings together robotics researchers from
leading centers in Japan, the USA and Europe, to address issues, architectures
and applications in networked robotics, and with the aim of building consensus
on the key technical issues, role and future impact of networked robotics.
Topics to be covered include networked mobile robots; modular, decentralized and
reconfigurable software architectures; networking of sensor and actuator
modules; distributed control and sensing; communications sensitive behaviors for
robot teams, and cooperative robotics and robotic work crews; the role of
networked robotics in on-line / telerobotic operations; and, realization of
intelligent spaces by networked robotics.
List of
Contributors
Prof. Ronald C. Arkin, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, USA
Prof. Henrik Christensen, Center for Autonomous Systems, Kungl
Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm, Sweden
Prof. Toshio Fukuda, Department of
Micro system Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan
Prof. Hideki
Hashimoto, Institute of Industrial Science, Univ. of Tokyo, Japan
Dr. Robert
Kozma, University of Memphis, TN, USA
Dr. Vijay Kumar, Grasp Laboratory,
University of Pennsylvania, USA
Dr. Maja Mataric, Robotics
Research Lab., University of Southern California, USA.
Dr. Gerard McKee,
Department of Computer Science, The University of Reading, UK
Dr. Lynne E.
Parker, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Dr. Paolo Pirjanian,
Evolution Robotics, Inc, U.S.A.
Dr. M. Isabel Ribeiro, Institute for Systems
and Robotics, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal
Prof. Steve Rock,
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, USA.
Dr.
Paul Schenker, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology,
USA
Dr. Gaurav Sukhatme, Robotics Research Lab, University of Southern
California, USA.
Dr Salah Sukkarieh, Australian Centre for Field Robotics,
The University of Sydney, Australia
Prof. Toru Yamaguchi, Tokyo Metropolitan
Institute of Technology, Japan
Motivatin &
Objectives
The traditional approach to the design of robotic systems –
designing an architecture that integrates sensors and actuators within a single
physical platform under centralized control – is changing.
The emerging view, as motivated by new large scale applications in space,
military, undersea, service, and the factory floor is one in which robotic
sensors, actuators, computing, and human interfaces may be distributed across
multiple physical robot platforms, possibly in time-delayed or asynchronous
communications. Harnessing this new view of robotics systems design requires
researchers to address a range of issues, architectures and applications,
including:
- Sensor, actuator, and processor resources: emerging
interfaces, protocols, and standards.
- Models for collective sensing and decentralized control in
distributed robotic systems
- Modular, extensible architectures for multi-robot
interaction and real-time coordination
- Communication networks and self-localization processes for
robust networked operations
- Integration of intelligence into networked
robots: planning, fault diagnosis, learning, etc.
- Strategies for coordination of heterogeneous robotic assets,
and mixed initiative control
- Interaction of human agents with multiple robots in
supervisory and physical modes
- Applications of networked robots to canonical R&D
problems and benchmark results: global mapping, wide area surveillance,
cooperative payload transport, etc.
- Extension of the Networked Robotics paradigm and
architectures to related problems: smart structures, smart home, pervasive
computing and ambient intelligence, etc.
The purpose of this workshop is
to explore implications of such networked robotic systems for future R&D
within the more traditional robotics disciplines, as well as characterize
special features and open problems unique to such decentralized systems
design.
Topics to be covered
- Communication-Sensitive Behaviors
- Mobile Robot Teams
- Telerobotics and human-robot interaction
- Intelligent spaces
- Robotics work crews
- Networked Mobile Robots
- Module networks
- Reconfigurable software architectures
- Heterogeneous multi-robot systems
- Distributed and decentralized sensing and control
- Software platforms and standards
- Information frameworks and systems
design
- Network intelligence
- Cooperative robotics, robotic work crews, and multi-robot
systems
- Coordination and Cooperation between aerial and ground
vehicles
Audience
The
workshop will be of interest to both robotics researchers and applications
developers. Researchers working in the areas of robot
architectures, reconfigurable systems, modular software and multi-agent
architecture design, cooperative robotics, networked communications, and
Internet and Online robotics, should find the workshop particularly valuable.
Endpoint applications designers and OEM developers will be able to assess the
use of networked robotics technology for building a layer, or network, of
intelligence, atop an embedded sensor, control, processor and communication
nodes in home, office and industrial environments, and the wider natural
environment.
Contacts
Dr. Gerard T. McKee (Primary contact)
The University of
Reading
Department of Computer Science
Reading, Berkshire, Reading RG6
6AY, UK
Tel: +44 (0)118 9318609
Fax: +44 (0)118 9751822
Email: g.t.mckee@reading.ac.uk
Dr. Paul S. Schenker
Manager, Mobility Systems Concept
Development Section
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive M/S
125-224
Pasadena, CA, 91109-8099, USA
Tel: 818 354 2681
Fax: 818 354
9973
Paul.S.Schenker@telerobotics.jpl.nasa.gov