(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-06)
Smith, Brian Stephen; Egerstedt, Magnus B.; Howard, Ayanna M.
In this paper we present a collection of graph-based
methods for determining if a team of mobile robots, subjected
to sensor and communication range constraints, can persistently
achieve a specified formation. What we mean by this is that
the formation, once achieved, will be preserved by the direct
maintenance of the smallest subset of all possible pairwise inter-agent
distances. In this context, formations are defined by sets
of points separated by distances corresponding to desired inter-agent
distances. Further, we provide graph operations to describe
agent interactions that implement a given formation, as well as
an algorithm that, given a persistent formation, automatically
generates a sequence of such operations. Experimental results are
presented that illustrate the operation of the proposed methods
on real robot platforms.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-05)
Smith, Brian Stephen; Wang, Jiuguang; Egerstedt, Magnus B.; Howard, Ayanna M.
Heterogeneous multi-robot networks require novel
tools for applications that require achieving and maintaining
formations. This is the case for distributing sensing devices
with heterogeneous mobile sensor networks. Here, we consider
a heterogeneous multi-robot network of mobile robots. The
robots have a limited range in which they can estimate the
relative position of other network members. The network
is also heterogeneous in that only a subset of robots have
localization ability. We develop a method for automatically
configuring the heterogeneous network to deploy a desired
formation at a desired location. This method guarantees that
network members without localization are deployed to the
correct location in the environment for the sensor placement.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-01)
Smith, Brian Stephen; Howard, Ayanna M.; McNew, John-Michael; Egerstedt, Magnus B.
This paper presents a framework for going from
specifications to implementations of decentralized control
strategies for multi-robot systems. In particular, we show
how the use of Embedded Graph Grammars (EGGs) provides
a tool for characterizing local interaction and control
laws. This paper highlights some key implementation aspects
of the EGG formalism, and develops and discusses experimental
results for a hexapod-based multi-robot system,
as well as a multi-robot system of wheeled robots.