@article {nairfault, title = {Fault-Tolerant Formation Control of Nonholonomic Robots Using Fast Adaptive Gain Nonsingular Terminal Sliding Mode Control}, year = {Submitted}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Karki, Hamad and Shukla, Amit and Behera, Laxmidhar and Jamshidi, Mo} } @article {489, title = {Probabilistic Network Topology Prediction for Active Planning: An Adaptive Algorithm and Application}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics}, volume = {39}, year = {2023}, month = {feb}, pages = {147{\textendash}164}, doi = {10.1109/tro.2022.3189223}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1109\%2Ftro.2022.3189223}, author = {Liang Zhang and Zexu Zhang and Roland Siegwart and Jen Jen Chung} } @article {488, title = {Time-sensitive coverage control for non-holonomic and heterogeneous robots: An extremum seeking framework and application}, journal = {IET Control Theory \&$\mathsemicolon$ Applications}, year = {2023}, month = {feb}, doi = {10.1049/cth2.12434}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1049\%2Fcth2.12434}, author = {Liang Zhang and Jinghui Deng and Kun Zhou and Tao Yu and Jun Song and Shuping He} } @article {Li2022, title = {3-D Inter-Robot Relative Localization via Semidefinite Optimization}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, volume = {7}, year = {2022}, pages = {10081{\textendash}10088}, publisher = {IEEE}, abstract = {In this letter, the 3-D inter-robot relative localization problem is addressed using noise-corrupted odometric and distance measurements. Unlike the existing solutions, we are devoted to providing a relative localization method that has an {\textquotedblleft}overall best performance,{\textquotedblright} which means that the tradeoffs between the estimation accuracy (EA), the number of measurements (NoMs), and the computation efficiency (CE) are considered. We demonstrate that an existing formulation of the 3-D relative localization problem, the square distances weighted least square (SD-WLS), can be equivalently reformulated as a non-convex quadratic constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problem. Further, to handle the non-convex nature of the QCQP problem, we adopt the semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation approach, which drops the rank constraint and recovers the solution of the QCQP via an eigenvalue decomposition strategy. Finally, a refinement step is introduced to solve the problem that the quadratic constraints might not be satisfied due to the SDP relaxation. The simulation and experiment results show that, compared to existing methods, our method has the best overall performance when the three factors, i.e., EA, NoMs, and CE, are important for a relative localization application.}, keywords = {3-D inter-robot relative localization, Distance measurement, Global Positioning System, Location awareness, non-convex optimization, QCQP, Quaternions, Robots, SDP, sensors, Sun}, issn = {2377-3774}, doi = {10.1109/LRA.2022.3192888}, author = {Ming Li and Tin Lun Lam and Zhiyong Sun} } @article {Luo2022, title = {Adaptive Flow Planning of Modular Spherical Robot Considering Static Gravity Stability}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, volume = {7}, year = {2022}, pages = {4228{\textendash}4235}, publisher = {IEEE}, abstract = {Modular robots have a unique obstacle-crossing method, flow. Flow is realized by constantly changing the connection relationship between modules, namely reconfiguration. Existing flow planning methods do not consider the static stability in their adaptation to obstacles. This letter proposes a flow planning method with scalability, adaptability, and static gravity stability. The criterion of static gravity stability is always satisfied through the following two innovations. First, each target configuration in the flow process is designed to grasp obstacles like vines. Second, in motion planning, each module maintains contact with the obstacle or a fixed module to maximize the supporting polygon of the configuration. What{\textquoteright}s more, the simplified path output by the connection planning and the precise calculation based on the mesh model realize the scalability and adaptability of the flow planning method. In simulation, we evaluate the adaptability to various obstacles and the margin of static gravity stability.}, keywords = {Cellular and modular robots, Gravity, Hardware, path planning for multiple mobile robots or agents, Planning, Robot kinematics, Robots, scheduling and coordination, Stability criteria, Three-dimensional displays}, issn = {2377-3774}, doi = {10.1109/LRA.2022.3150028}, author = {Haobo Luo and Tin Lun Lam} } @conference {Liang2022, title = {Energy Sharing Mechanism for a Freeform Robotic System - FreeBOT}, booktitle = {2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2022}, pages = {4232{\textendash}4238}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Philadelphia, PA, USA}, abstract = {Energy sharing in modular self-reconfigurable robots ensures the energy balance of the modules, thus allowing the system to work sustainably. This paper proposes an energy sharing mechanism for a novel modular self-reconfigurable robot that allows free connections among modules, termed as FreeBOT, such that each FreeBOT can share energy with peers through surface contact. Corresponding energy sharing rules are proposed to achieve an energy sharing network structure without invalid components. As alternative choices, several types of networks subjected to the above requirements are provided, which also maximize the number of FreeBOTs joining to share energy. We implement and test the prototype of the energy sharing mechanism on FreeBOT. The experimental results show that the mechanism can effectively achieve energy sharing among FreeBOTs.}, keywords = {Automation, Prototypes, Robots}, isbn = {978-1-7281-9682-4}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811860}, author = {Guanqi Liang and Yuxiao Tu and Lijun Zong and Junfeng Chen and Tin Lun Lam} } @conference {Tu2022, title = {FreeSN: A Freeform Strut-node Structured Modular Self-reconfigurable Robot - Design and Implementation}, booktitle = {2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2022}, pages = {4239{\textendash}4245}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Philadelphia, PA, USA}, abstract = {This paper proposes a novel freeform strut-node structured modular self-reconfigurable robot (MSRR) called FreeSN, consisting of strut and node modules. A node module is mainly a low-carbon steel spherical shell. A strut module contains two freeform connectors, which provide strong magnetic connections and flexible spherical motions. The FreeSN system shares the benefits of freeform connection and strut-node structures. The freeform connection brings good adaptability to the environment. The triangle substructures inside the system configuration significantly improve the structural stability. The parallel execution of module motions can superpose the module capabilities and makes the system more scalable. The modules can combine these robot features by selecting the system configuration and better fit different circumstances and tasks. Four demonstrations, including assembly, obstacle crossing, transportation, and object manipulation, are designed to show the capabilities of the FreeSN system in different aspects. The results show the great performance and versatility of this MSRR system.}, keywords = {Automation, Connectors, Robots, Steel, Structural engineering, Task analysis, Transportation}, isbn = {978-1-7281-9682-4}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811583}, author = {Yuxiao Tu and Guanqi Liang and Tin Lun Lam} } @conference {Alhafnawi2022, title = {MOSAIX: a Swarm of Robot Tiles for Social Human-Swarm Interaction}, booktitle = {2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2022}, pages = {6882-6888}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811723}, author = {M Alhafnawi and E R Hunt and S Lemaignan and P O{\textquoteright}Dowd and S Hauert} } @article {468, title = {Multi-robot search for a stationary object placed in a known environment with a combination of GRASP and VND}, journal = {International Transactions in Operational Research}, volume = {29}, year = {2022}, pages = {805-836}, doi = {10.1111/itor.12794}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/itor.12794}, author = {Kulich, Miroslav and P{\v r}eu{\v c}il, Libor} } @article {471, title = {Self-Stabilizing Self-Assembly}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, volume = {7}, year = {2022}, pages = {9763-9769}, doi = {10.1109/LRA.2022.3191795}, author = {J{\'\i}lek, Martin and Str{\'a}nsk{\'a}, Kate{\v r}ina and Somr, Michael and Kulich, Miroslav and Zeman, Jan and P{\v r}eu{\v c}il, Libor} } @conference {Zhao2022, title = {SnailBot: A Continuously Dockable Modular Self-reconfigurable Robot Using Rocker-bogie Suspension}, booktitle = {2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2022}, pages = {4261{\textendash}4267}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Philadelphia, PA, USA}, abstract = {This paper proposes a novel modular self-assembling, self-reconfiguring robot with the 3D continuous dock called {\textquotedblleft}SnailBot{\textquotedblright}. SnailBot mainly consists of a spherical ferromagnetic shell and a six-wheel rocker chassis with embedded magnets. Unlike many other existing modular self-reconfigurable robots with fixed docking locations, SnailBot uses the 3D continuous dock to attach to its peers regardless of alignment. This freeform docking mechanism can greatly improve the efficiency of self-reconfiguration and reduce docking failures because there is nearly no constraint in the location of the connector. Compared with the existing freeform MSRR, SnailBot can form a more structurally stable connection to its peers without loss of connection efficiency. Owing to the excellent obstacle crossing ability of the rocker-bogie suspension, the robot can freely crawl on other modules in the form of a sliding sphere. Experiments demonstrate the basic actions of a single module and some applications of SnailBots, such as a manipulator.}, keywords = {Automation, Connectors, Manipulators, Three-dimensional displays}, isbn = {978-1-7281-9682-4}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811779}, author = {Da Zhao and Tin Lun Lam} } @article {Hunt2022, title = {What Could Models of Superorganismal Cognition Offer to Embodied AI?}, journal = {IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering}, volume = {1261}, year = {2022}, pages = {012023}, publisher = {IOP Publishing}, abstract = {Superorganisms such as ant or honeybee colonies exhibit extraordinary collective intelligence, such as an ability to identify and choose the best available nest site in an uncertain world. This collective cognition is inextricably reliant on the embodiment of individual agents, specifically their movement through space. We have recently developed models of superorganismal cognition based on a compelling analogy with techniques in Bayesian statistics, which are likewise aimed at grappling with the uncertainty and incompleteness of real data sources. These models foreground some potential lessons for the design of embodied artificial intelligences, such as robot swarms. For example, the spatial distribution of independently judging agents can convey valuable information, relaxing expectations that regular inter-agent ({\textquoteleft}inter-neuronal{\textquoteright}) communication is necessary for cognition, which points to the potential of minimal field swarm robotics. Meanwhile, the importance of individual heterogeneity to effective and resilient collective cognition in biology suggests great potential in this area for engineering.}, issn = {1757-899X}, doi = {10.1088/1757-899X/1261/1/012023}, url = {https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/1261/1/012023}, author = {Edmund R Hunt} } @conference {435, title = {Distributed Cooperative LFC Protocols for Regulation Synchronization for Networked Multi-area Power Grid Networks}, booktitle = {47th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES)}, year = {2021}, month = {10/2021}, author = {Shafiqul Islam}, editor = {Jorge Dias and Anderson Sunda-Meya} } @article {490, title = {Distributed PDOP Coverage Control: Providing Large-Scale Positioning Service Using a Multi-Robot System}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, volume = {6}, year = {2021}, month = {apr}, pages = {2217{\textendash}2224}, doi = {10.1109/lra.2021.3059625}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1109\%2Flra.2021.3059625}, author = {Liang Zhang and Zexu Zhang and Roland Siegwart and Jen Jen Chung} } @conference {Tu2021, title = {Graph Convolutional Network based Configuration Detection for Freeform Modular Robot Using Magnetic Sensor Array}, booktitle = {2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2021}, pages = {4252{\textendash}4258}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Xi{\textquoteright}an, China}, abstract = {Modular self-reconfigurable robotic (MSRR) systems are potentially more robust and more adaptive than conventional systems. Following our previous work where we proposed a freeform MSRR module called FreeBOT, this paper presents a novel configuration detection system for FreeBOT using a magnetic sensor array. A FreeBOT module can be connected by up to 11 modules, and the proposed configuration detection system can locate a variable number of connection points accurately in real-time. By equipping FreeBOT with 24 magnetic sensors, the magnetic field density produced by magnets and steel spherical shells can be monitored. The connectable area is split into 199 non-uniform regions, including 84 uniform regions. Using a Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) based algorithm, the connection points can be located accurately under ferromagnetic environments. The system can locate a variable number of connection points for such a region division with only single connection point training data. Finally, the localization algorithm can run faster than 40 Hz on FreeBOT. With the real-time configuration detection system, the FreeBOT system has the potential to reconfigure automatically and accurately.}, keywords = {Conferences, Location awareness, Magnetic sensors, Real-time systems, Robot sensing systems, Steel, Training data}, isbn = {978-1-7281-9078-5}, issn = {1050-4729}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561340}, author = {Yuxiao Tu and Guanqi Liang and Tin Lun Lam} } @conference {440, title = {GVGExp: Communication-Constrained Multi-Robot Exploration System based on Generalized Voronoi Graphs}, booktitle = {International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS)}, year = {2021}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Cambridge, United Kingdom}, abstract = {This paper presents GVGExp, a recurrent-connectivity exploration strategy for multi-robot systems to discover unknown environments under communication-constrained conditions. A robust multi-robot exploration strategy with communication constraints is important to accomplish several applications, e.g., underwater or planetary exploration. Mainstream multi-robot exploration strategies have considered unlimited communication. In addition, these strategies delegate the resolution of potential path collisions to local planners. In this paper, we explicitly focus on minimizing the number of communication events between robots given the limited bandwidth that can be available in real missions, as well as explicitly minimizing potential path interference between robots. GVGExp incrementally builds a Generalized Voronoi Graph (GVG), which is used by the robots to determine the topology of the environment. We introduce a novel property of the GVG called gate to identify a region (subtree) that is uniquely assigned to each robot, with no overlap, thus minimizing potential path interference. Whenever a robot finishes exploring a region, in a depth-first search fashion, or finds a loop connecting to other parts of the environment, the robot shares information with other robots that are in range to enable coordination. We performed numerous simulations to evaluate our proposed strategy and compared it with other state-of-the-art methods. Experimental results show that GVGExp is able to explore the environments in a relatively short amount of time, significantly reducing communication events and path interference.}, doi = {10.1109/MRS50823.2021.9620554}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9620554/}, author = {Masaba, Kizito and Quattrini~Li, Alberto} } @article {Guo2021, title = {Semantic Histogram Based Graph Matching for Real-Time Multi-Robot Global Localization in Large Scale Environment}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, volume = {6}, year = {2021}, pages = {8349{\textendash}8356}, publisher = {IEEE}, abstract = {The core problem of visual multi-robot simultaneous localization and mapping (MR-SLAM) is how to efficiently and accurately perform multi-robot global localization (MR-GL). The difficulties are two-fold. The first is the difficulty of global localization for significant viewpoint difference. Appearance-based localization methods tend to fail under large viewpoint changes. Recently, semantic graphs have been utilized to overcome the viewpoint variation problem. However, the methods are highly time-consuming, especially in large-scale environments. This leads to the second difficulty, which is how to perform real-time global localization. In this letter, we propose a semantic histogram based graph matching method that is robust to viewpoint variation and can achieve real-time global localization. Based on that, we develop a system that can accurately and efficiently perform MR-GL for both homogeneous and heterogeneous robots. The experimental results show that our approach is about 30 times faster than Random Walk based semantic descriptors. Moreover, it achieves an accuracy of 95\% for global localization, while the accuracy of the state-of-the-art method is 85\%.}, keywords = {Global localization, Histograms, large viewpoint difference, Location awareness, multi-robot map merging, Real-time systems, semantic SLAM, Semantics, Simultaneous localization and mapping, Three-dimensional displays, Visualization}, issn = {2377-3774}, doi = {10.1109/LRA.2021.3058935}, author = {Xiyue Guo and Junjie Hu and Junfeng Chen and Fuqin Deng and Tin Lun Lam} } @conference {Zhang2021, title = {Task-Space Decomposed Motion Planning Framework for Multi-Robot Loco-Manipulation}, booktitle = {2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2021}, pages = {8158{\textendash}8164}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Xi{\textquoteright}an, China}, abstract = {This paper introduces a novel task-space decomposed motion planning framework for multi-robot simultaneous locomotion and manipulation. When several manipulators hold an object, closed-chain kinematic constraints are formed, and it will make the motion planning problems challenging by inducing lower-dimensional singularities. Unfortunately, the constrained manifold will be even more complicated when the manipulators are equipped with mobile bases. We address the problem by introducing a dual-resolution motion planning framework which utilizes a convex task region decomposition method, with each resolution tuned to efficient computation for their respective roles. Concretely, this dual-resolution approach enables a global planner to explore the low-dimensional decomposed task-space regions toward the goal, then a local planner computes a path in high-dimensional constrained configuration space. We demonstrate the proposed method in several simulations, where the robot team transports the object toward the goal in the obstacle-rich environments.}, keywords = {Computational modeling, Conferences, Kinematics, Manifolds, Manipulators, Planning, System recovery}, isbn = {978-1-7281-9078-5}, issn = {1050-4729}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9560902}, author = {Xiaoyu Zhang and Lei Yan and Tin Lun Lam and Sethu Vijayakumar} } @article {470, title = {Towards a Passive Self-Assembling Macroscale Multi-Robot System}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, volume = {6}, year = {2021}, pages = {7293-7300}, doi = {10.1109/LRA.2021.3096748}, author = {J{\'\i}lek, Martin and Somr, Michael and Kulich, Miroslav and Zeman, Jan} } @article {469, title = {Towards a Passive Self-Assembling Macroscale Multi-Robot System}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, volume = {6}, year = {2021}, pages = {7293-7300}, doi = {10.1109/LRA.2021.3096748}, author = {J{\'\i}lek, Martin and Somr, Michael and Kulich, Miroslav and Zeman, Jan and P{\v r}eu{\v c}il, Libor} } @conference {413, title = {AmphiLight: Direct Air-Water Communication with Laser Light}, booktitle = {17th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI 20)}, year = {2020}, publisher = {USENIX Association}, organization = {USENIX Association}, address = {Santa Clara, CA}, isbn = {978-1-939133-13-7}, url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/nsdi20/presentation/carver}, author = {Charles J. Carver and Zhao Tian and Hongyong Zhang and Kofi M. Odame and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Xia Zhou} } @article {Hunt2020b, title = {The Bayesian Superorganism: Collective Probability Estimation in Swarm Systems}, journal = {Artificial Life Conference Proceedings}, volume = {32}, year = {2020}, note = {doi: 10.1162/isal_a_00247}, month = {7}, pages = {315-323}, publisher = {MIT Press}, abstract = {Superorganisms such as social insect colonies are very successful relative to their non-social counterparts. Powerful emergent information processing capabilities would seem to contribute to the abundance of such ?swarm? systems, as they effectively explore and exploit their environment collectively. We develop a Bayesian model of collective information processing in a decision-making task: choosing a nest site (a ?multi-armed bandit? problem). House-hunting Temnothorax ants are adept at discovering and choosing the best available nest site for their colony: we propose that this is possible via rapid, decentralized estimation of the probability that each choice is best. Viewed this way, their behavioral algorithm can be understood as a statistical method that anticipates recent advances in mathematics. Our nest finding model incorporates insights from approximate Bayesian computation as a model of colony-level behavior; and particle filtering as a model of Temnothorax ?tandem running?. Our framework suggests that the mechanisms of complex collective behavior can sometimes be explained as a spatial enactment of Bayesian inference. It facilitates the generation of quantitative hypotheses regarding individual and collective movement behaviors when collective decisions must be made. It also points to the potential for bioinspired statistical techniques. Finally, it suggests simple mechanisms for collective decision-making in engineered systems, such as robot swarms.}, doi = {10.1162/isal_a_00247}, url = {https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/isal_a_00247}, author = {Edmund R Hunt and Nigel R Franks and Roland J Baddeley} } @article {Hunt2020, title = {A checklist for safe robot swarms}, journal = {Nature Machine Intelligence}, volume = {2}, year = {2020}, pages = {420-422}, abstract = {As robot swarms move from the laboratory to real-world applications, a routine checklist of questions could help ensure their safe operation.}, issn = {2522-5839}, doi = {10.1038/s42256-020-0213-2}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-020-0213-2}, author = {Edmund R Hunt and Sabine Hauert} } @conference {493, title = {A Connectivity-Prediction Algorithm and its Application in Active Cooperative Localization for Multi-Robot Systems}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9197083}, author = {Zhang, Liang and Zhang, Zexu and Siegwart, Roland and Chung, Jen Jen} } @conference {441, title = {DeepURL: Deep Pose Estimation Framework for Underwater Relative Localization}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2020}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Las Vegas, NV, USA}, doi = {10.1109/IROS45743.202010.1109/IROS45743.2020.9341201}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9341201/}, author = {Joshi, Bharat and Modasshir, Md and Manderson, Travis and Damron, Hunter and Xanthidis, Marios and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Rekleitis, Ioannis and Dudek, Gregory} } @conference {10.1145/3377929.3398078, title = {Evolutionary Stress Factors for Adaptable Robot {\textquoteright}Personalities{\textquoteright}}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2020 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion}, year = {2020}, pages = {1387{\textendash}1388}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, organization = {Association for Computing Machinery}, abstract = {Many studies on real multi-robot systems are undertaken in laboratory environments, whereas the outside world is unstable and risky. I argue that the phenomenon of phenotypic plasticity provides a bioinspiration framework for making such systems more resilient in the field. Such plasticity can result in consistent individual behavioural differences among group members, which have been described as {\textquoteright}personalities{\textquoteright} in recent years. Personality axes such as shy-bold can be represented by single variables, and may be intuitive in the context of human-robot interaction. However, for plasticity to emerge in artificial evolution, simulated environments need to be more heterogeneous and unpredictable, as in real-world natural history. Behavioral Reaction Norms (BRNs) from developmental biology are a useful concept for the transparent mapping of relevant sensory inputs to robot behavioral change. In this position paper, I identify candidate stress factors in simulated environments for artificial evolution of adaptive BRNs. I also consider some potential benefits and costs of this approach.}, keywords = {field robotics, personality, phenotypic plasticity, reaction norms}, isbn = {9781450371278}, doi = {10.1145/3377929.3398078}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3377929.3398078}, author = {Edmund R Hunt} } @article {412, title = {Exploration and Mapping with Groups of Robots: Recent Trends}, journal = {Current Robotics Reports}, year = {2020}, month = {Sep-09-2020}, abstract = {Purpose of Review Multi-robot exploration{\textemdash}i.e., the problem of mapping unknown features of an environment{\textemdash}is fundamental in many tasks, including search and rescue, planetary exploration, and environmental monitoring. This article surveys recent literature with the aim at identifying current research trends, open challenges, and future directions. Recent Findings Since the first formalization of the exploration problem, current research has extended systems and algorithms to map 3D environments and more complex phenomena and considered real-world constraints. Deep learning-based approaches have seen some preliminary applications in decision-making. Summary While current research has been progressing towards systems that can work in the real world, long-term exploration in large unstructured environments with complex phenomena to map is still an open problem. This introduces opportunities for exciting research, including but not limited to generalized frameworks that bridge the gap between theory and practice, learning-based approaches, and robustness to failure and attacks, so that robots can be deployed safely in real-world environments.}, keywords = {Exploration, Mapping, Multi-robot systems}, doi = {10.1007/s43154-020-00030-5}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43154-020-00030-5}, author = {Quattrini~Li, Alberto} } @conference {Liang2020, title = {FreeBOT: A Freeform Modular Self-reconfigurable Robot with Arbitrary Connection Point - Design and Implementation}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2020}, pages = {6506{\textendash}6513}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Las Vegas, NV, USA}, abstract = {This paper proposes a novel modular selfreconfigurable robot (MSRR) "FreeBOT", which can be connected freely at any point on other robots. FreeBOT is mainly composed of two parts: a spherical ferromagnetic shell and an internal magnet. The connection between the modules is genderless and instant, since the internal magnet can freely attract other FreeBOT spherical ferromagnetic shells, and not need to be precisely aligned with the specified connector. This connection method has fewer physical constraints, so the FreeBOT system can be extended to more configurations to meet more functional requirements. FreeBOT can accomplish multiple tasks although it only has two motors: module independent movement, connector management and system reconfiguration. FreeBOT can move independently on the plane, and even climb on ferromagnetic walls; a group of FreeBOTs can traverse complex terrain. Numerous experiments have been conducted to test its function, which shows that the FreeBOT system has great potential to realize a freeform robotic system.}, keywords = {Connectors, Intelligent robots, Task analysis}, isbn = {978-1-7281-6213-3}, issn = {2153-0858}, doi = {10.1109/IROS45743.2020.9341129}, author = {Guanqi Liang and Haobo Luo and Ming Li and Huihuan Qian and Tin Lun Lam} } @article {411, title = {Multi-robot online sensing strategies for the construction of communication maps}, journal = {Autonomous Robots}, volume = {44}, year = {2020}, month = {Jan-03-2020}, pages = {299 - 319}, abstract = {This paper tackles the problem of constructing a communication map of a known environment using multiple robots. A communication map encodes information on whether two robots can communicate when they are at two arbitrary locations and plays a fundamental role for a multi-robot system deployment to reliably and effectively achieve a variety of tasks, such as environmental monitoring and exploration. Previous work on communication map building typically considered only scenarios with a fixed base station and designed offline methods, which did not exploit data collected online by the robots. This paper proposes Gaussian Process-based online methods to efficiently build a communication map with multiple robots. Such robots form a mesh network, where there is no fixed base station. Specifically, we provide two leader-follower online sensing strategies to coordinate and guide the robots while collecting data. Furthermore, we improve the performance and computational efficiency by exploiting prior communication models that can be built from the physical map of the environment. Extensive experimental results in simulation and with a team of TurtleBot 2 platforms validate the approach.}, keywords = {Communication maps, Multi-robot systems, Sensing strategies}, issn = {0929-5593}, doi = {10.1007/s10514-019-09862-3}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10514-019-09862-3}, author = {Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Penumarthi, Phani Krishna and Banfi, Jacopo and Basilico, Nicola and O{\textquoteright}Kane, Jason M. and Rekleitis, Ioannis and Nelakuditi, Srihari and Amigoni, Francesco} } @article {399, title = {A Multi-Trip Task Assignment for Early Target Inspection in Squads of Aerial Drones}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing}, volume = {in press}, year = {2020}, author = {N. Bartolini and Andrea Coletta and Gaia Maselli and Ala Khalifeh} } @conference {Luo2020, title = {An Obstacle-crossing Strategy Based on the Fast Self-reconfiguration for Modular Sphere Robots}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2020}, pages = {3296{\textendash}3303}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Las Vegas, NV, USA}, abstract = {This paper introduces an obstacle-crossing strategy, and the self-reconfiguration algorithm for a new class of modular robots called the rolling sphere, which can fit obstacles represented by cubes of different sizes due to the chain connection of multiple spheres. For the self-reconfiguration of the rolling spheres, a large gradient is obtained by classifying its action types and hierarchically minimizing the distance between the initial configuration and the final configuration. The most direct use of this large gradient is the fast crossing of various obstacles, by jointing multiple self-reconfigurations according to the OctoMap of the obstacles. It is verified in simulation that the self-reconfiguration takes full advantage of the parallel movement of multiple modules to reduce the total time steps, and the obstacle-crossing strategy can adapt to a variety of obstacles.}, keywords = {Adaptation models, Classification algorithms, Intelligent robots}, isbn = {978-1-7281-6213-3}, issn = {2153-0858}, doi = {10.1109/IROS45743.2020.9341162}, author = {Haobo Luo and Ming Li and Guangqi Liang and Huihuan Qian and Tin Lun Lam} } @booklet {Hunt2020, title = {Phenotypic Plasticity Provides a Bioinspiration Framework for Minimal Field Swarm Robotics}, howpublished = {Frontiers in Robotics and AI}, volume = {7}, year = {2020}, pages = {23}, abstract = {The real world is highly variable and unpredictable, and so fine-tuned robot controllers that successfully result in group-level {\textquotedblleft}emergence{\textquotedblright} of swarm capabilities indoors may quickly become inadequate outside. One response to unpredictability could be greater robot complexity and cost, but this seems counter to the {\textquotedblleft}swarm philosophy{\textquotedblright} of deploying (very) large numbers of simple agents. Instead, here I argue that bioinspiration in swarm robotics has considerable untapped potential in relation to the phenomenon of phenotypic plasticity: when a genotype can produce a range of distinctive changes in organismal behavior, physiology and morphology in response to different environments. This commonly arises following a natural history of variable conditions; implying the need for more diverse and hazardous simulated environments in offline, pre-deployment optimization of swarms. This will generate{\textemdash}indicate the need for{\textemdash}plasticity. Biological plasticity is sometimes irreversible; yet this characteristic remains relevant in the context of minimal swarms, where robots may become mass-producible. Plasticity can be introduced through the greater use of adaptive threshold-based behaviors; more fundamentally, it can link to emerging technologies such as smart materials, which can adapt form and function to environmental conditions. Moreover, in social animals, individual heterogeneity is increasingly recognized as functional for the group. Phenotypic plasticity can provide meaningful diversity {\textquotedblleft}for free{\textquotedblright} based on early, local sensory experience, contributing toward better collective decision-making and resistance against adversarial agents, for example. Nature has already solved the challenge of resilient self-organisation in the physical realm through phenotypic plasticity: swarm engineers can follow this lead.}, isbn = {2296-9144}, doi = {10.3389/frobt.2020.00023}, url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frobt.2020.00023}, author = {Edmund R Hunt} } @conference {Li2020, title = {Robot-to-Robot Relative Pose Estimation based on Semidefinite Relaxation Optimization}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2020}, pages = {4491{\textendash}4498}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Las Vegas, NV, USA}, abstract = {In this paper, the 2D robot-to-robot relative pose (position and orientation) estimation problem based on ego-motion and noisy distance measurements is considered. We address this problem using an optimization-based method, which does not require complicated numerical analysis while yields no inferior relative localization (RL) results compared to existing approaches. In particular, we start from a state-of-the-art method named square distances weighted least square (SD-WLS), and reformulate it as a non-convex quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problem. To handle its non-convex nature, a semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation optimization-based method is proposed, and we prove that the relaxation is tight when measurements are free from noise or just corrupted by small noise. Further, to obtain the optimal solution of the relative pose estimation problem in the sense of maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), a theoretically optimal WLS method is developed to refine the estimate from the SDP optimization. Comprehensive simulations and well-designed experiments are presented for validating the tightness of the SDP relaxation, and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is highlighted by comparing it to the existing approaches.}, keywords = {Maximum likelihood estimation, Noise measurement, Optimization, Particle measurements, Pose estimation, Quadratic programming, Two dimensional displays}, isbn = {978-1-7281-6213-3}, issn = {2153-0858}, doi = {10.1109/IROS45743.2020.9341568}, author = {Ming Li and Guanqi Liang and Haobo Luo and Huihuan Qian and Tin Lun Lam} } @article {Hunt2020a, title = {SPIDER: a Bioinspired Swarm Algorithm for Adaptive Risk-Taking}, journal = {Artificial Life Conference Proceedings}, volume = {32}, year = {2020}, note = {doi: 10.1162/isal_a_00279}, month = {7}, pages = {44-51}, publisher = {MIT Press}, abstract = {Robot swarms can solve tasks that are impossible or too hazardous for single robots. For example, following a nuclear radiation leak, a user may wish to establish a distributed communication chain that partly extends into the most dangerous areas to gather new information. The challenge is to create long chains while maintaining chain connectivity (?connected reach?), where those at the distant end of the chain are more likely to be disconnected. Here we take the concept of dynamic ?boldness? levels from animal behavior (Stegodyphus social spiders) to explore such risky environments in a way that adapts to the size of the group. Boldness is implemented as a continuous variable associated with the risk appetite of individuals to explore regions more distant from a central base. We present a decentralized mechanism for robots, based on the frequency of their social interactions, to adaptively take on ?bold? and ?shy? behaviors. Using this new bioinspired algorithm, which we call SPIDER, swarms are shown to adapt rapidly to the loss of bold individuals by regenerating a suitable shy?bold distribution, with fewer bolder individuals in smaller groups. This allows them to dynamically trade-off the benefits and costs of long chains (information retrieval versus loss of robots) and demonstrates the particular advantage of this approach in hazardous or adversarial environments.}, doi = {10.1162/isal_a_00279}, url = {https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/isal_a_00279}, author = {Edmund R Hunt and George Jenkinson and Michael Wilsher and Carl P Dettmann and Sabine Hauert} } @article {491, title = {Decentralised finite-time consensus for second-order multi-agent system under event-triggered strategy}, journal = {IET Control Theory \& Applications}, volume = {14}, year = {2019}, pages = {664{\textendash}673}, author = {Zhang, Liang and Zhang, Zexu and Lawrance, Nicholas and Nieto, Juan and Siegwart, Roland} } @book {414, title = {Online Update of Communication Maps for Exploring Multirobot Systems Under Connectivity Constraints}, series = {Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics - Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems}, volume = {9}, year = {2019}, pages = {513 - 526}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, organization = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Cham}, keywords = {Communication, Exploration, Multirobot systems}, isbn = {978-3-030-05815-9}, issn = {2511-1256}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-05816-610.1007/978-3-030-05816-6_36}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-05816-6}, author = {Amigoni, Francesco and Banfi, Jacopo and Basilico, Nicola and Rekleitis, Ioannis and Quattrini~Li, Alberto}, editor = {Correll, Nikolaus and Schwager, Mac and Otte, Michael} } @conference {492, title = {Optimized motion strategy for active target localization of mobile robots with time-varying connectivity}, booktitle = {2019 International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS)}, year = {2019}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Zhang, Liang and Zhang, Zexu and Siegwart, Roland and Chung, Jen Jen} } @article {350, title = {Persistent and Robust Execution of MAPF Schedules in Warehouses}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters}, volume = {4}, year = {2019}, month = {Jan-04-2019}, pages = {1125 - 1131}, doi = {10.1109/LRA.2019.2894217}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8620328/https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielam/7083369/8581687/8620328-aam.pdfhttp://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/7083369/8581687/08620328.pdf?arnumber=8620328}, author = {Honig, Wolfgang and Kiesel, Scott and Tinka, Andrew and Durham, Joseph W. and Ayanian, Nora} } @proceedings {428, title = {Robust Adaptive Finite-Time Consensus Tracking Protocols for a Group of Nonlinear Autonomous Systems}, year = {2019}, month = {11/2019}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {Italy}, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2019.8914028}, author = {S. Islam} } @proceedings {426, title = {Robust Adaptive Tracking Synchronization Protocols for Leader-Follower Multirotor Aerial Vehicles with Uncertainty}, year = {2019}, month = {11/2019}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {Italy}, abstract = { This paper develops robust adaptive tracking synchronization protocol for a group of cloud connected leader-follower multirotor aerial vehicles (MAVs) with uncertainty. The design combines adaptive learning mechanism with sliding mode control vectors to solve consensus tracking synchroniza-tion problem for both attitude and position dynamics. The protocols are constructed by using local and neighboring states of the vehicles provided that the vehicles can share states information with neighboring vehicles via local area network. Adaptive learning algorithms are used locally for each vehicle to deal with uncertainty associated with nonlinear dynamics and uncertain flying environment. Lyapunov and sliding mode control method is employed to design and analyze asymptotic convergence of the consensus tracking error functions. The convergence analysis shows that the states of the follower vehicles can reach an agreement and synchronize to the leader vehicle achieving ensuring tracking synchronization property. The protocols design and implementation is simple as they do not require exact knowledge of the dynamical model and uncertainty. }, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2019.8914373}, author = {Shafiqul Islam and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik and Anderson Sunda-Meya} } @article {425, title = {Robust Asymptotic and Finite-time Tracking for Second-order Nonlinear Multi-agent Autonomous Systems}, journal = {International Journal of Control Automation and Systems}, volume = {17}, year = {2019}, month = {12/2019}, type = {Research }, chapter = {3069}, abstract = {This paper investigates consensus based distributed robust asymptotic and finite-time tracking control strategy for second-order multi-agent autonomous systems. The protocol design uses states of the neighboring agents with directed communication topology in the presence of uncertainty associated with the autonomous agents. Robust adaptive learning algorithm uses with the protocol design for each follower agent to learn and adapt bounded uncertainty associated with nonlinear dynamics of the follower agents. Adaptive learning protocol also integrates with the follower agents protocol to learn and adapt bounded input of the leader. Lyapunov method with Graph, classical sliding mode, and terminal sliding mode theory use to guarantee that the proposed distributed control design can reach an agreement and follow the states of the leader in both finite-time and asymptotic sense. Analysis shows that consensus based protocol can force the states of the followers sliding surface to track the states of the leader sliding surface in finite-time and remain there. The proposed distributed consensus protocol does not require the exact bound of the uncertainty associated with the follower agents. Also, the proposed protocol does not require the exact bound of the leader input as opposed to other distributed cooperative control designs. Evaluation results with comparison are presented to demonstrate the validity of the theoretical argument for the real-time applications.}, author = {Shafiqul Islam and Nicolas Xiros} } @proceedings {427, title = {Robust Cooperative Load-Frequency Tracking Protocols for Leader-Follower Smart Power Grid Networks With Uncertainty}, year = {2019}, month = {11/2019}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {Italy}, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2019.8914446}, author = {Shafiqul Islam and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik} } @conference {410, title = {ROS-CBT: Communication Benchmarking Tool for the Robot Operating System: Extended Abstract}, booktitle = {International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS)}, year = {2019}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {New Brunswick, NJ, USA}, abstract = {Simulation plays a critical role in robotics as it allows verification and it provides evaluations of robot software before real world deployment. One prevalent limitation of robotic simulators that support the Robot Operating System, ROS - a de facto standard for developing robotic software - is the absence of communication simulators. This poses a serious challenge in testing software for multi-robot systems (MRS) that use explicit communication, hence limiting the development of this technology. Figure 1 illustrates the problem tackled in this paper.}, doi = {10.1109/MRS47350.201910.1109/MRS.2019.8901094}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8901094/}, author = {Masaba, Kizito and Quattrini~Li, Alberto} } @proceedings {406, title = {On Task Assignment for Early Target Inspection in Squads of Aerial Drones}, year = {2019}, author = {N. Bartolini and A. Coletta and G. Maselli} } @article {Hunt2019, title = {Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms}, journal = {Royal Society Open Science}, volume = {6}, year = {2019}, pages = {190225}, doi = {10.1098/rsos.190225}, author = {Edmund R Hunt and Simon Jones and Sabine Hauert} } @conference {377, title = {Adding Heuristics to Conflict-Based Search for Multi-Agent Pathfinding}, booktitle = {International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS)}, year = {2018}, author = {Ariel Felner and Jiaoyang Li and Eli Boyarski and Hang Ma and Liron Cohen and T. K. Satish Kumar and Sven Keonig} } @conference {419, title = {Autonomous Marine Sampling Enhanced by Strategically Deployed Drifters in Marine Flow Fields}, booktitle = {OCEANS 2018 MTS/IEEE Charleston}, year = {2018}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Charleston, SC}, doi = {10.1109/OCEANS.2018.8604873}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8604873/}, author = {Hansen, Johanna and Manjanna, Sandeep and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Rekleitis, Ioannis and Dudek, Gregory} } @article {352, title = {Combinatorial Problems in Multirobot Battery Exchange Systems}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering}, volume = {15}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-04-2018}, pages = {852 - 862}, issn = {1545-5955}, doi = {10.1109/TASE.2017.2767379}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8125731/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/8856/8332019/08125731.pdf?arnumber=8125731}, author = {Kamra, Nitin and Kumar, T. K. Satish and Ayanian, Nora} } @proceedings {430, title = {Consensus Based Distributed Cooperative Control for Multiple Miniature Aerial Vehicles with Uncertainty}, year = {2018}, month = {11/2018}, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2017.8122995}, author = {Shafiqul Islam}, editor = {Peter Liu and A. El Saddik} } @proceedings {429, title = {Consensus Based Distributed Robust Adaptive Control for Second-Order Nonlinear Multi-agent Systems with Uncertainty}, year = {2018}, month = {11/2018}, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2018.00451}, author = {Shafiqul Islam}, editor = {Toufik Khawl and Abdelaziz Saeed Mohamed Alzaabi and Anderson Sunda-Meya} } @conference {420, title = {Experimental Analysis of Radio Communication Capabilities of Multiple Autonomous Surface Vehicles}, booktitle = {OCEANS 2018 MTS/IEEE Charleston}, year = {2018}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Charleston, SC}, doi = {10.1109/OCEANS.2018.8604713}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8604713}, author = {Malebary, Sharaf and Moulton, Jason and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Rekleitis, Ioannis} } @article {nair2018fault, title = {Fault tolerant formation control of nonholonomic robots using fast adaptive gain nonsingular terminal sliding mode control}, journal = {IEEE Systems Journal (Accepted)}, number = {99}, year = {2018}, publisher = {IEEE}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Karki, Hamad and Shukla, Amit and Behera, Laxmidhar and Jamshidi, Mo} } @conference {416, title = {Heterogeneous Multirobot System for Exploration and Strategic Water Sampling}, booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2018}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2018.8460759}, author = {Sandeep Manjanna and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Ryan N. Smith and Ioannis Rekleitis and Gregory Dudek} } @conference {365, title = {Intelligent Robotic IoT System (IRIS)Testbed}, booktitle = {2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2018}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Madrid}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2018.8593636}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8593636/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/8574473/8593358/08593636.pdf?arnumber=8593636}, author = {Tran, Jason A. and Ghosh, Pradipta and Gu, Yutong and Kim, Richard and D{\textquoteright}Souza, Daniel and Ayanian, Nora and Krishnamachari, Bhaskar} } @article {301, title = {Markov inequality rule for switching among time optimal controllers in a multiple vehicle intercept problem}, journal = {Automatica}, volume = {87}, year = {2018}, pages = {274--280}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2017.09.009}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000510981730479X?via\%3Dihub}, author = {Dejan Milutinovi{\'c} and David W. Casbeer and Meir Pachter} } @conference {375, title = {Multi-Agent Path Finding with Deadlines}, booktitle = {International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI)}, year = {2018}, keywords = {conference}, author = {Hang Ma and Glenn Wagner and Ariel Felner and Jiaoyang Li and T. K. Satish Kumar and Sven Koenig} } @conference {376, title = {Multi-Agent Path Finding with Deadlines: Preliminary Results}, booktitle = {International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS)}, year = {2018}, author = {Hang Ma and Glenn Wagner and Ariel Felner and Jiaoyang Li and T. K. Satish Kumar and Sven Koenig} } @conference {417, title = {Multi-robot Dubins Coverage with Autonomous Surface Vehicles}, booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2018}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2018.8460661}, author = {Nare Karapetyan and Jason Moulton and Jeremy S. Lewis and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Jason M. O{\textquoteright}Kane and Ioannis Rekleitis} } @article {nair2018robust, title = {Robust adaptive gain higher order sliding mode observer based control-constrained nonlinear model predictive control for spacecraft formation flying}, journal = {IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica}, volume = {5}, number = {1}, year = {2018}, pages = {367{\textendash}381}, publisher = {IEEE}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Behera, Laxmidhar} } @conference {418, title = {A Search-Based Approach to Solve Pursuit-Evasion Games with Limited Visibility in Polygonal Environments}, booktitle = {International Conference on Autonomous \& Multiagent Systems (AAMAS)}, year = {2018}, url = {http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3237383.323795}, author = {Quattrini Li, Alberto and Raffaele Fioratto and Francesco Amigoni and Volkan Isler} } @article {331, title = {Strategies for coordinated multirobot exploration with recurrent connectivity constraints}, journal = {Autonomous Robots}, volume = {42}, year = {2018}, pages = {875{\textendash}894}, abstract = {During several applications, such as search and rescue, robots must discover new information about the environment and, at the same time, share operational knowledge with a base station through an ad hoc network. In this paper, we design exploration strategies that allow robots to coordinate with teammates to form such a network in order to satisfy recurrent connectivity constraints{\textendash}-that is, data must be shared with the base station when making new observations at the assigned locations. Current approaches lack in flexibility due to the assumptions made about the communication model. Furthermore, they are sometimes inefficient because of the synchronous way they work: new plans are issued only once all robots have reached their goals. This paper introduces two novel asynchronous strategies that work with arbitrary communication models. In this paper, {\textquoteleft}asynchronous{\textquoteright} means that it is possible to issue new plans to subgroups of robots, when they are ready to receive them. First, we propose a single-stage strategy based on Integer Linear Programming for selecting and assigning robots to locations. Second, we design a two-stage strategy to improve computational efficiency, by separating the problem of locations{\textquoteright} selection from that of robot-location assignments. Extensive testing both in simulation and with real robots show that the proposed strategies provide good situation awareness at the base station while efficiently exploring the environment.}, keywords = {Communication constraints, Exploration, Multirobot systems, Recurrent connectivity}, doi = {10.1007/s10514-017-9652-y}, author = {Jacopo Banfi and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Ioannis Rekleitis and Francesco Amigoni and Nicola Basilico} } @conference {363, title = {Trajectory Planning for Heterogeneous Robot Teams}, booktitle = {2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2018}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Madrid}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2018.8593876}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8593876/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/8574473/8593358/08593876.pdf?arnumber=8593876}, author = {Debord, Mark and Honig, Wolfgang and Ayanian, Nora} } @article {351, title = {Trajectory Planning for Quadrotor Swarms}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics}, volume = {34}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-08-2018}, pages = {856 - 869}, issn = {1552-3098}, doi = {10.1109/TRO.2018.2853613}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8424034/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/8860/8437110/08424034.pdf?arnumber=8424034}, author = {Honig, Wolfgang and Preiss, James A. and Kumar, T. K. Satish and Sukhatme, Gaurav S. and Ayanian, Nora} } @conference {415, title = {Underwater Surveying via Bearing Only Cooperative Localization}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2018}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Madrid}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2018.8593431}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8593431}, author = {Damron, Hunter and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Rekleitis, Ioannis} } @article {378, title = {AI Buzzwords Explained: Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF)}, journal = {AI Matters}, volume = {3}, year = {2017}, pages = {15{\textendash}19}, keywords = {journal}, author = {Hang Ma and Sven Koenig} } @conference {334, title = {Collaborative Sampling Using Heterogeneous Marine Robots Driven by Visual Cues}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Conference on Computer and Robot Vision (CRV)}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This paper addresses distributed data sampling in marine environments using robotic devices. We present a method to strategically sample locally observable features using two classes of sensor platforms. Our system consists of a sophisticated autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) which strategically samples based on information provided by a team of inexpensive sensor nodes. The sensor nodes effectively extend the observational capabilities of the vehicle by capturing georeferenced samples from disparate and moving points across the region. The ASV uses this information, along with its own observations, to plan a path so as to sample points which it expects to be particularly informative. We compare our approach to a traditional exhaustive survey approach and show that we are able to effectively represent a region with less energy expenditure. We validate our approach through simulations and test the system on real robots in field.}, doi = {10.1109/CRV.2017.49}, author = {Sandeep Manjanna and Johanna Hansen and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Ioannis Rekleitis and Gregory Dudek} } @proceedings {431, title = {Consensus Based Distributed Cooperative Control for Multiple Miniature Aerial Vehicles with Uncertainty}, year = {2017}, month = {11/2017}, publisher = {IEEE}, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2017.8122995}, author = {Shafiqul Islam}, editor = {P. X. Liu and A. El Saddik} } @conference {357, title = {Crazyswarm: A large nano-quadcopter swarm}, booktitle = {2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2017}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Singapore, Singapore}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2017.7989376}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7989376/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/7960754/7988677/07989376.pdf?arnumber=7989376}, author = {Preiss, James A. and Honig, Wolfgang and Sukhatme, Gaurav S. and Ayanian, Nora} } @proceedings {432, title = {Distributed Robust Adaptive Finite-Time Voltage Control for AC Microgrids with Uncertainty}, year = {2017}, month = {11/2017}, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2017.8122946}, author = {S. Islam}, editor = {P. X. Liu and A. El Saddik} } @proceedings {434, title = {Distributed Robust Adaptive Finite-Time Voltage Control for AC Microgrids with Uncertainty}, year = {2017}, month = {11/2017}, doi = {10.1109/SMC.2017.8122946}, author = {Shafiqul Islam}, editor = {Peter Liu and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik} } @conference {355, title = {Downwash-aware trajectory planning for large quadrotor teams}, booktitle = {2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2017}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Vancouver, BC}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2017.8202165}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8202165/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/8119304/8202121/08202165.pdf?arnumber=8202165}, author = {Preiss, James A. and Honig, Wolfgang and Ayanian, Nora and Sukhatme, Gaurav S.} } @article {nair2017event, title = {Event-Triggered Finite-Time Integral Sliding Mode Controller for Consensus-Based Formation of Multirobot Systems With Disturbances}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology}, number = {99}, year = {2017}, pages = {1{\textendash}9}, publisher = {IEEE}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Behera, Laxmidhar and Kumar, Swagat} } @conference {381, title = {Feasibility Study: Moving Non-Homogeneous Teams in Congested Video Game Environments}, booktitle = {AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE)}, year = {2017}, keywords = {conference}, author = {Hang Ma and Jingxing Yang and Liron Cohen and T. K. Satish Kumar and Sven Koenig} } @inbook {354, title = {Flying Multiple UAVs Using ROS}, volume = {707}, year = {2017}, pages = {83 - 118}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, organization = {Springer International Publishing}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-319-54926-2}, issn = {1860-949X}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-54927-910.1007/978-3-319-54927-9_3}, author = {Honig, Wolfgang and Ayanian, Nora}, editor = {Koubaa, Anis} } @conference {302, title = {A Geometric Approach for the Cooperative Two-Pursuer One-Evader Differential Game}, booktitle = {20th IFAC World Congress}, year = {2017}, doi = {10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.2366}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240589631733183X}, author = {Eloy Garcia and Zachariah E. Fuchs and Dejan Milutinovi{\'c} and David W. Casbeer and Meir Pachter} } @conference {380, title = {Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding for Online Pickup and Delivery Tasks}, booktitle = {International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS)}, year = {2017}, keywords = {conference}, author = {Hang Ma and Jiaoyang Li and T. K. Satish Kumar and Sven Koenig} } @conference {379, title = {Multi-Agent Path Finding with Delay Probabilities}, booktitle = {AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)}, year = {2017}, keywords = {conference}, author = {Hang Ma and T. K. Satish Kumar and Sven Koenig} } @conference {332, title = {Multirobot Exploration for Building Communication Maps with Prior from Communication Models}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS)}, year = {2017}, author = {Phani Krishna Penumarthi and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Jacopo Banfi and Nicola Basilico and Francesco Amigoni and Jason O{\textquoteright}Kane and Ioannis Rekleitis and Srihari Nelakuditi} } @conference {333, title = {Multirobot Online Construction of Communication Maps}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The importance of communication in many multirobot information-gathering tasks requires the availability of reliable communication maps. These provide estimates of the radio signal strength and can be used to predict the presence of communication links between different locations of the environment. In the problem we consider, a team of mobile robots has to build such maps autonomously in a robot-to-robot communication setting. The solution we propose models the signal{\textquoteright}s distribution with a Gaussian Process and exploits different online sensing strategies to coordinate and guide the robots during their data acquisition. Our methods show interesting operative insights both in simulations and on real TurtleBot 2 platforms.}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2017.7989300}, author = {Jacopo Banfi and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Nicola Basilico and Ioannis Rekleitis and Francesco Amigoni} } @article {370, title = {Multirobot Systems [TC Spotlight]}, journal = {IEEE Robotics \& Automation Magazine}, volume = {24}, year = {2017}, month = {Jan-06-2017}, pages = {12 - 16}, issn = {1070-9932}, doi = {10.1109/MRA.2017.2691138}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7947267/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/100/7947233/07947267.pdf?arnumber=7947267}, author = {Ayanian, Nora and Fitch, Robert and Franchi, Antonio and Sabattini, Lorenzo} } @article {353, title = {Overview: A Hierarchical Framework for Plan Generation and Execution in Multirobot Systems}, journal = {IEEE Intelligent Systems}, volume = {32}, year = {2017}, month = {Jan-11-2017}, pages = {6 - 12}, issn = {1541-1672}, doi = {10.1109/MIS.2017.4531217}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8268002/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/9670/8267591/08268002.pdf?arnumber=8268002}, author = {Ma, Hang and Honig, Wolfgang and Cohen, Liron and Uras, Tansel and Xu, Hong and Kumar, T.K. Satish and Ayanian, Nora and Koenig, Sven} } @conference {356, title = {Summary: Multi-Agent Path Finding with Kinematic Constraints}, booktitle = {Twenty-Sixth International Joint Conference on Artificial IntelligenceProceedings of the Twenty-Sixth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence}, year = {2017}, publisher = {International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization}, organization = {International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization}, address = {Melbourne, AustraliaCalifornia}, doi = {10.24963/ijcai.201710.24963/ijcai.2017/684}, url = {https://www.ijcai.org/proceedings/2017https://www.ijcai.org/proceedings/2017/684}, author = {Honig, Wolfgang and Kumar, T. K. Satish and Cohen, Liron and Ma, Hang and Xu, Hong and Ayanian, Nora and Koenig, Sven} } @conference {nair2016adaptive, title = {Adaptive fuzzy nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control for spacecraft formation flying}, booktitle = {IEEE First International conference on Control, Measurement and Instrumentation, Kolkata, India}, year = {2016}, pages = {408{\textendash}413}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Behera, Laxmidhar} } @conference {171, title = {Asynchronous Multirobot Exploration under Recurrent Connectivity Constraints}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2016}, address = {Stockholm, Sweden}, abstract = {In multirobot exploration under centralized control, communication plays an important role in constraining the team exploration strategy. Recurrent connectivity is a way to define communication constraints for which robots must connect to a base station only when making new observations. This paper studies effective multirobot exploration strategies under recurrent connectivity by considering a centralized and asynchronous planning framework. We formalize the problem of selecting the optimal set of locations robots should reach, provide an exact formulation to solve it, and devise an approximation algorithm to obtain efficient solutions with a bounded loss of optimality. Experiments in simulation and on real robots evaluate our approach in a number of settings.}, author = {Jacopo Banfi and Alberto Quattrini~Li and Nicola Basilico and Ioannis Rekleitis and Francesco Amigoni} } @article {210, title = {Cooperative Multi-Robot Patrol with Bayesian Learning}, journal = {Autonomous Robots}, year = {2016}, author = {Portugal, D. and Rocha, R. P.} } @conference {335, title = {Data Correlation and Comparison from Multiple Sensors over a Coral Reef with a Team of Heterogeneous Aquatic Robots}, booktitle = {International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER)}, year = {2016}, abstract = {This paper presents experimental insights from the deployment of an ensemble of heterogeneous autonomous sensor systems over a shallow coral reef. Visual, inertial, GPS, and ultrasonic data collected are compared and correlated to produce a comprehensive view of the health of the coral reef. Coverage strategies are discussed with a focus on the use of informed decisions to maximize the information collected during a fixed period of time.}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-50115-4_62}, author = {Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Ioannis Rekleitis and Sandeep Manjanna and Nikhil Kakodkar and Johanna Hansen and Gregory Dudek and Leonardo Bobadilla and Jacob Anderson and Ryan N. Smith} } @conference {142, title = {Decentralized Motion Control for Cooperative Manipulation with a Team of Networked Mobile Manipulators}, booktitle = {2016 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2016}, month = {05/2016}, address = {Stockholm, Sweden}, keywords = {Calibration of ground robots, Motion control of multiple robots}, author = {Antonio Petitti and Antonio Franchi and Donato Di Paola and Alessandro Rizzo} } @article {132, title = {Decentralized Multi-Robot Encirclement of a 3D Target with Guaranteed Collision Avoidance}, journal = {Autonomous Robots}, volume = {40}, year = {2016}, month = {02/2016}, pages = {245-265}, abstract = {We present a control framework for achieving encirclement of a target moving in 3D using a multi-robot system. Three variations of a basic control strategy are proposed for different versions of the encirclement problem, and their effectiveness is formally established. An extension ensuring maintenance of a safe inter-robot distance is also discussed. The proposed framework is fully decentralized and only requires local communication among robots; in particular, each robot locally estimates all the relevant global quantities. We validate the proposed strategy through simulations on kinematic point robots and quadrotor UAVs, as well as experiments on differential-drive wheeled mobile robots.}, keywords = {Motion control of multiple robots}, author = {Antonio Franchi and Paolo Stegagno and Giuseppe Oriolo} } @conference {358, title = {Formation change for robot groups in occluded environments}, booktitle = {2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2016}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Daejeon, South Korea}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2016.7759710}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7759710/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/7743711/7758082/07759710.pdf?arnumber=7759710}, author = {Honig, Wolfgang and Kumar, T. K. Satish and Ma, Hang and Koenig, Sven and Ayanian, Nora} } @conference {276, title = {Growing Controllable Networks via Whiskering and Submodular Optimization}, booktitle = {Conference on Decision and Control}, year = {2016}, month = {12/2016}, abstract = {The topology of a network directly influences the behaviour and controllability of dynamical processes on that network. Therefore, the design of network topologies is an important area of research when examining the control of distributed systems. We discuss a method for growing networks known as whiskering, as well as generalizations of this process, and prove that they preserve controllability. We then use techniques from submodular optimization to analyze optimization algorithms for adding new nodes to a network to optimize certain objectives, such as graph connectivity.}, author = {Hudoba de Badyn, Mathias and Mesbahi, Mehran} } @article {214, title = {Integration of hardware and software designs for object grasping and transportation by a mobile robot with navigation guidance via a unique bearing-alignment mechanism}, journal = {IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics}, volume = {21}, year = {2016}, pages = {576-583}, author = {J. Wu and X. Yue and W. Li} } @article {165, title = {Model and analysis of the interaction dynamics in cooperative manipulation tasks}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), accepted}, year = {2016}, url = {https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1276284/132134.pdf}, author = {S. Erhart and S. Hirche} } @conference {188, title = {Multi-Agent Path Finding with Kinematic Constraints}, booktitle = {International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling}, year = {2016}, month = {Jun}, address = {London, UK}, keywords = {Multi-Agent Path Finding with Kinematic Contraints}, author = {Wolfgang H{\"o}nig and T. K. Satish Kumar and Liron Cohen and Hang Ma and Hong Xu and Nora Ayanian and Sven Koenig} } @conference {382, title = {Multi-Agent Path Finding with Payload Transfers and the Package-Exchange Robot-Routing Problem}, booktitle = {AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)}, year = {2016}, keywords = {conference}, author = {Hang Ma and Craig Tovey and Guni Sharon and T. K. Satish Kumar and Sven Koenig} } @article {213, title = {Notion of control-law module and modular framework of cooperative transportation using multiple nonholonomic robotic agents with physical rigid-formation-motion constraints}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics,}, volume = {46}, year = {2016}, author = {W. Li} } @conference {383, title = {Optimal Target Assignment and Path Finding for Teams of Agents}, booktitle = {International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS)}, year = {2016}, keywords = {conference}, author = {Hang Ma and Sven Koenig} } @conference {384, title = {Overview: Generalizations of Multi-Agent Path Finding to Real-World Scenarios}, booktitle = {IJCAI-16 Workshop on Multi-Agent Path Finding (WOMPF)}, year = {2016}, keywords = {workshop}, author = {Hang Ma and Sven Koenig and Nora Ayanian and Liron Cohen and Wolfgang H{\"o}nig and T. K. Satish Kumar and Tansel Uras and Hong Xu and C. Tovey and G. Sharon} } @conference {385, title = {Planning, Scheduling and Monitoring for Airport Surface Operations}, booktitle = {AAAI-16 Workshop on Planning for Hybrid Systems (PlanHS)}, year = {2016}, keywords = {workshop}, author = {Robert Morris and Corina Pasareanu and Kasper Luckow and Waqar Malik and Hang Ma and T. K. Satish Kumar and Sven Koenig} } @conference {366, title = {SAGL: A New Heuristic for Multi-Robot Routing with Complex Tasks}, booktitle = {2016 IEEE 28th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI)2016 IEEE 28th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI)}, year = {2016}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {San Jose, CA, USA}, doi = {10.1109/ICTAI.2016.0087}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7814647/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/7811909/7814561/07814647.pdf?arnumber=7814647}, author = {Xu, Hong and Kumar, T.K. Satish and Johnke, Dylan and Ayanian, Nora and Koenig, Sven} } @conference {264, title = {Scalable value approximation for multiple target tail-chase with collision avoidance}, booktitle = {2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)}, year = {2016}, month = {Dec}, keywords = {Cost function, Dynamic programming, Games, Hazards, Markov processes, Mathematical model, Optimal control}, doi = {10.1109/CDC.2016.7798645}, author = {A. Hashemi and D. Milutinovi{\'c} and D. W. Casbeer} } @article {400, title = {On the Vulnerabilities of Voronoi-Based Approaches to Mobile Sensor Deployment}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing}, volume = {15}, year = {2016}, month = {Dec}, pages = {3114-3128}, abstract = {Mobile sensor networks are the most promising solution to cover an Area of Interest (AoI) in safety critical scenarios. Mobile devices can coordinate with each other according to a distributed deployment algorithm, without resorting to human supervision for device positioning and network configuration. In this paper, we focus on the vulnerabilities of the deployment algorithms based on Voronoi diagrams to coordinate mobile sensors and guide their movements. We give a geometric characterization of possible attack configurations, proving that a simple attack consisting of a barrier of few compromised sensors can severely reduce network coverage. On the basis of the above characterization, we propose two new secure deployment algorithms, named SecureVor and Secure Swap Deployment (SSD). These algorithms allow a sensor to detect compromised nodes by analyzing their movements, under different and complementary operative settings. We show that the proposed algorithms are effective in defeating a barrier attack, and both have guaranteed termination. We perform extensive simulations to study the performance of the two algorithms and compare them with the original approach. Results show that SecureVor and SSD have better robustness and flexibility and excellent coverage capabilities and deployment time, even in the presence of an attack.}, keywords = {area of interest, Bills of materials, computational geometry, Computer science, deployment algorithms, device positioning, Mobile communication, Mobile computing, mobile radio, mobile sensor deployment, mobile sensor networks, Mobile sensors, mobile wireless sensors, Monitoring, network configuration, network coverage, secureVor secure swap deployment, self-deployment, sensors, telecommunication security, Voronoi approach, Voronoi-based approaches, wireless sensor networks}, issn = {1558-0660}, doi = {10.1109/TMC.2016.2524630}, author = {N. Bartolini and S. Ciavarella and S. Silvestri and T. L. Porta} } @article {195, title = {Ad Hoc Communication in Teams of Mobile Robots using Zigbee Technology}, journal = {Computer Applications in Engineering Education}, volume = {23}, year = {2015}, month = {Sep.}, pages = {733-745}, author = {Fernandes, A. and Couceiro, M. and Portugal, D. and Santos, J. M. and Rocha, R. P.} } @article {189, title = {Cooperative Control for Target Tracking with Onboard Sensing}, journal = {International Journal of Robotics Research}, volume = {34}, year = {2015}, month = {November}, pages = {1660-1677}, author = {Karol Hausman and Joerg Mueller and Abishek Hariharan and Nora Ayanian and Gaurav Sukhatme} } @article {97, title = {Decentralized rigidity maintenance control with range measurements for multi-robot systems}, journal = {International Journal of Robotics Research}, volume = {34}, year = {2015}, month = {01/2015}, pages = {128}, chapter = {105}, abstract = {This work proposes a fully decentralized strategy for maintaining the formation rigidity of a multi-robot system using only range measurements, while still allowing the graph topology to change freely over time. In this direction, a first contribution of this work is an extension of rigidity theory to weighted frameworks and the rigidity eigenvalue, which when positive ensures the infinitesimal rigidity of the framework. We then propose a distributed algorithm for estimating a common relative position reference frame amongst a team of robots with only range measurements in addition to one agent endowed with the capability of measuring the bearing to two other agents. This first estimation step is embedded into a subsequent distributed algorithm for estimating the rigidity eigenvalue associated with the weighted framework. The estimate of the rigidity eigenvalue is finally used to generate a local control action for each agent that both maintains the rigidity property and enforces additional constraints such as collision avoidance and sensing/communication range limits and occlusions. As an additional feature of our approach, the communication and sensing links among the robots are also left free to change over time while preserving rigidity of the whole framework. The proposed scheme is then experimentally validated with a robotic testbed consisting of six quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles operating in a cluttered environment. }, keywords = {Decentralized control, distributed algorithm, distributed estimation, graph rigidity, multi-robot}, doi = {10.1177/0278364914546173}, url = {http://ijr.sagepub.com/content/34/1/105}, author = {Daniel Zelazo and Antonio Franchi and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff and Paolo Robuffo Giordano} } @conference {158, title = {Dynamic Load Distribution in Cooperative Manipulation Tasks}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2015)}, year = {2015}, address = {Hamburg, Germany}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2015.7353699}, author = {A. Zambelli and S. Erhart and L. Zaccarian and S. Hirche} } @conference {190, title = {Dynamic Resource Reallocation for Robots on Long Term Deployments}, booktitle = {IEEE Intl Conf Automation Science and Engineering}, year = {2015}, month = {Aug}, address = {Gothenburg, Sweden}, author = {Nitin Kamra and Nora Ayanian} } @article {157, title = {Internal force analysis and load distribution for cooperative multi-robot manipulation}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO)}, volume = {31}, year = {2015}, pages = {1238 - 1243}, doi = {10.1109/TRO.2015.2459412}, author = {S. Erhart and S. Hirche} } @conference {212, title = {Minimizing communication latency in multirobot situation-aware patrolling}, booktitle = {Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on}, year = {2015}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Banfi, Jacopo and Basilico, Nicola and Amigoni, Francesco} } @conference {359, title = {A mixed integer programming model for timed deliveries in multirobot systems}, booktitle = {2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)}, year = {2015}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Gothenburg, Sweden}, doi = {10.1109/CoASE.2015.7294146}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7294146/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/7279855/7294025/07294146.pdf?arnumber=7294146}, author = {Kamra, Nitin and Ayanian, Nora} } @conference {192, title = {Mixed Reality for Robotics}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. Intelligent Robots and Systems}, year = {2015}, month = {Sept}, address = {Hamburg, Germany}, author = {Wolfgang Hoenig and Christina Milanes and Lisa Scaria and Thai Phan and Mark Bolas and Nora Ayanian} } @conference {360, title = {Mixed reality for robotics}, booktitle = {2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2015}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Hamburg, Germany}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2015.7354138}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7354138/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/7347169/7353104/07354138.pdf?arnumber=7354138}, author = {Honig, Wolfgang and Milanes, Christina and Scaria, Lisa and Phan, Thai and Bolas, Mark and Ayanian, Nora} } @conference {159, title = {Multi-robot manipulation controlled by a human with haptic feedback}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The interaction of a single human with a team of cooperative robots, which collaboratively manipulate an object, poses a great challenge by means of the numerous possibilities of issuing commands to the team or providing appropriate feedback to the human. In this paper we propose a formationbased approach in order to avoid deformations of the object and to virtually couple the human to the formation. Here the human can be interpreted as a leader in a leader-follower formation with the robotic manipulators being the followers. The results of a controllability analysis in such a leader-follower formation suggest that it is beneficial to measure the state of the human (leader) by all physically cooperating manipulators (followers). The proposed approach is evaluated in a full-scale multi-robot cooperative manipulation experiment with humans.}, author = {D. Sieber and S. Music and S. Hirche} } @article {215, title = {A Multirobot System for Distributed Area Coverage and Signal Searching in Large Outdoor Scenarios}, journal = {Journal of Field Robotics}, year = {2015}, pages = {n/a{\textendash}n/a}, issn = {1556-4967}, doi = {10.1002/rob.21636}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rob.21636}, author = {Garz{\'o}n, Mario and Valente, Jo{\~a}o and Rold{\'a}n, Juan Jes{\'u}s and Cancar, Leandro and Barrientos, Antonio and Del Cerro, Jaime} } @article {nair2015multisatellite, title = {Multisatellite Formation Control for Remote Sensing Applications Using Artificial Potential Field and Adaptive Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control}, journal = {IEEE Systems Journal}, volume = {9}, number = {2}, year = {2015}, pages = {508{\textendash}518}, publisher = {IEEE Systems Journal}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Behera, Laxmidhar and Kumar, Vinod and Jamshidi, Mo} } @conference {151, title = {Network Entropy: A System-Theoretic Perspective}, booktitle = {Conference on Decision and Control}, year = {2015}, author = {Mathias Hudoba de Badyn and Chapman, Airlie and Mesbahi, Mehran} } @article {111, title = {Observer-Based Decentralized Fault Detection and Isolation Strategy for Networked Multirobot Systems}, journal = {Control Systems Technology, IEEE Transactions on}, volume = {PP}, year = {2015}, pages = {1-1}, abstract = {In this paper, we present a distributed fault {detection} and isolation (FDI) strategy for a team of networked robots that builds on a distributed controller-observer schema. Remarkably different from other works in literature, the proposed FDI approach makes each robot of the team able to detect and isolate faults occurring on other robots, even if they are not direct neighbors. By means of a local observer, each robot can estimate the overall state of the team and it can use such an estimate to compute its local control input to achieve global tasks. The same information used by the local observers is also used to compute residual vectors, whose aim is to allow the detection and the isolation of actuator faults occurring on any robot of the team. Adaptive thresholds are derived based on the dynamics of the residual vectors by considering the presence of nonzero initial observer estimation errors, and noise terms affecting state measurement and model dynamics. The approach is validated via both numerical simulations and experiments involving four Khepera III mobile robots.}, keywords = {Distributed multirobot systems, Fault detection, fault detection and isolation (FDI), networked robots., Noise, Noise measurement, Observers, Robots, Uncertainty, Vectors}, issn = {1063-6536}, doi = {10.1109/TCST.2014.2377175}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=\&arnumber=7004823}, author = {Arrichiello, F. and Marino, A. and Pierri, F.} } @article {148, title = {Occlusion-Based Cooperative Transport with a Swarm of Miniature Mobile Robots}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics}, volume = {31}, year = {2015}, pages = {307{\textendash}321}, keywords = {cooperation without communication, cooperative transport, e-puck, occlusion, swarm robotics}, doi = {10.1109/TRO.2015.2400731}, author = {Chen, Jianing and Gauci, Melvin and Li, Wei and Kolling, A. and Gross, Roderich} } @conference {367, title = {The optimism principle: A unified framework for optimal robotic network deployment in an unknown obstructed environment}, booktitle = {2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2015}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Hamburg, Germany}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2015.7353728}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7353728/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/7347169/7353104/07353728.pdf?arnumber=7353728}, author = {Wang, Shangxing and Krishnamachari, Bhaskar and Ayanian, Nora} } @conference {191, title = {The Optimism Principle: A Unified Framework for Optimal Robotic Network Deployment in An Unknown Obstructed Environment}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ Intl Conf. Intelligent Robots and Systems}, year = {2015}, month = {Sept.}, address = {Hamburg, Germany}, author = {Shangxing Wang and Bhaskar Krishnamachari and Nora Ayanian} } @conference {nair2015robust, title = {Robust adaptive gain nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control for spacecraft formation flying}, booktitle = {Decision and Control (CDC), 2015 IEEE 54th Annual Conference on}, year = {2015}, pages = {5314{\textendash}5319}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Behera, Laxmidhar} } @article {167, title = {A semantically-informed multirobot system for exploration of relevant areas in search and rescue settings}, journal = {Autonomous Robots}, year = {2015}, pages = {1{\textendash}17}, abstract = {Coordinated multirobot exploration involves autonomous discovering and mapping of the features of initially unknown environments by using multiple robots. Autonomously exploring mobile robots are usually driven, both in selecting locations to visit and in assigning them to robots, by knowledge of the already explored portions of the environment, often represented in a metric map. In the literature, some works addressed the use of semantic knowledge in exploration, which, embedded in a semantic map, associates spatial concepts (like {\textquoteleft}rooms{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}corridors{\textquoteright}) with metric entities, showing its effectiveness in improving the total area explored by robots. In this paper, we build on these results and propose a system that exploits semantic information to push robots to explore relevant areas of initially unknown environments, according to a priori information provided by human users. Discovery of relevant areas is significant in some search and rescue settings, in which human rescuers can instruct robots to search for victims in specific areas, for example in cubicles if a disaster happened in an office building during working hours. We propose to speed up the exploration of specific areas by using semantic information both to select locations to visit and to determine the number of robots to allocate to those locations. In this way, for example, more robots could be assigned to a candidate location in a corridor, so the attached rooms can be explored faster. We tested our semantic-based multirobot exploration system within a reliable robot simulator and we evaluated its performance in realistic search and rescue indoor settings with respect to state-of-the-art approaches.}, keywords = {Coordinated multirobot exploration, Search and Rescue, Semantic map}, issn = {1573-7527}, doi = {10.1007/s10514-015-9480-x}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10514-015-9480-x}, author = {Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Cipolleschi, Riccardo and Giusto, Michele and Amigoni, Francesco} } @article {196, title = {Understanding the Communication Complexity of the Robotic Darwinian PSO}, journal = {Robotica}, volume = {33}, year = {2015}, month = {Jan.}, pages = {157-180}, author = {Couceiro, M.S. and Fernandes, A. and Rocha, R. P. and Ferreira, N.M.F.} } @article {201, title = {Benchmark of Swarm Robotics Distributed Techniques in a Search Task}, journal = {Robotics and Autonomous Systems}, volume = {62}, year = {2014}, month = {Feb.}, pages = {200-213}, author = {Couceiro, M.S. and Vargas, P. A. and Rocha, R. P. and Ferreira, N. M. F.} } @article {199, title = {Benchmark of Swarm Robotics Distributed Techniques in a Search Task}, journal = {Robotica}, volume = {32}, year = {2014}, month = {Oct.}, pages = {1017-1038}, author = {Couceiro MS and Portugal, D and Rocha, RP and Ferreira, NMF} } @article {198, title = {Bridging the Reality Gap between the Webots Simulator and e-puck Robots}, journal = {Robotics and Autonomous Systems}, volume = {62}, year = {2014}, month = {Oct.}, pages = {1549{\textendash}1567}, author = {Couceiro, M C and Vargas, P A and Rocha, R P} } @conference {AyanianControlling2014, title = {Controlling a Team of Robots from a Single Input}, booktitle = {IEEE Int{\textquoteright}l Conf. Robotics and Automation}, year = {2014}, month = {Jun}, pages = {1755 - 1762}, address = {Hong Kong}, author = {Nora Ayanian and Andrew Spielberg and Matthew Arbesfeld and Jason Strauss and Daniela Rus} } @conference {HausmanCooperative2014, title = {Cooperative Control for Target Tracking with Onboard Sensing}, booktitle = {International Symposium of Robotics Research}, year = {2014}, month = {Jun}, address = {Morocco}, author = {Karol Hausman and Joerg Mueller and Abishek Hariharan and Nora Ayanian and Gaurav Sukhatme} } @article {200, title = {Darwinian Swarm Exploration under Communication Constraints: Initial Deployment and Fault-Tolerance Assessment}, journal = {Robotics and Autonomous Systems}, volume = {62}, year = {2014}, month = {Apr.}, pages = {528-544}, author = {Couceiro, M.S. and Figueiredo, C.M. and Rocha, R.P. and Ferreira, N.M.F.} } @article {82, title = {Decentralized time-varying formation control for multi-robot systems}, journal = {The International Journal of Robotics Research}, volume = {33}, year = {2014}, pages = {1029{\textendash}1043}, author = {G.~Antonelli and F.~Arrichiello and F.~Caccavale and A.~Marino} } @article {194, title = {Decomposition frameworks for cooperative manipulation of a planar rigid body with multiple unilateral thrusters}, journal = {Nonlinear Dynamics}, volume = {79}, year = {2014}, pages = {31{\textendash}46}, abstract = {In this paper, we consider cooperative manipulation of a planar rigid body using multiple actuator agents{\textendash}-unilateral thrusters, each attached to the body and each able to apply an unilateral force to the body. Generally, the dynamics of the body manipulated with uncoordinated forces of thrusters is nonlinear. The problem we consider is how to design the unilateral force each agent applies to ensure the decoupling and linearity of the linear and angular (i.e., translational and rotational) accelerations of the body and thus allow a controller to be designed in a simpler manner, instead of developing sophisticated nonlinear control techniques. Here consider two types of unilateral thrusters with (i) all fixed directions, and (ii) all non-fixed directions, respectively. To address the problem, we design two decomposition frameworks, each with its advantages, on the structure of the forces and control policy such that (i) the linear and angular accelerations of the body are decoupled and controlled independently, and (ii) the control that ensures the forces to be unilateral (only for thrusters with non-fixed directions) is independent from the linear and angular accelerations. As a result, the closed-loop dynamics of the body is linear with respect to both the linear and angular accelerations; thus the control of the body becomes trivial, which may provide a convenient and alternative methodology for design of a physical system with a quick estimation and reference of the manipulated forces required.}, issn = {1573-269X}, doi = {10.1007/s11071-014-1643-3}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11071-014-1643-3}, author = {Li, Wei and Spong, Mark W.} } @conference {160, title = {Dynamic Movement Primitives for Cooperative Manipulation and Synchronized Motions}, booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2014}, author = {J. Umlauft and D. Sieber and S. Hirche} } @conference {143, title = {The Flying Hand: a Formation of UAVs for Cooperative Aerial Tele-Manipulation}, booktitle = {2014 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2014}, month = {05/2014}, address = {Hong Kong, China}, abstract = {The flying hand is a robotic hand consisting of a swarm of UAVs able to grasp an object where each UAV contributes to the grasping task with a single contact point at the tooltip. The swarm of robots is teleoperated by a human hand whose fingertip motions are tracked, e.g., using an RGB-D camera. We solve the kinematic dissimilarity of this unique master-slave system using a multi-layered approach that includes: a hand interpreter that translates the fingertip motion in a desired motion for the object to be manipulated; a mapping algorithm that transforms the desired object motions into a suitable set of virtual points deviating from the planned contact points; a compliant force control for the case of quadrotor UAVs that allows to use them as indirect 3D force effectors. Visual feedback is also used as sensory substitution technique to provide a hint on the internal forces exerted on the object. We validate the approach with several human-in-the-loop simulations including the full physical model of the object, contact points and UAVs.}, keywords = {Aerial Physical Interaction, Aerial Robotics, Bilateral Shared Control of Mobile Robots, Motion control of multiple robots}, author = {Guido Gioioso and Antonio Franchi and Gionata Salvietti and Stefano Scheggi and Domenico Prattichizzo} } @article {197, title = {Mechanism and Convergence Analysis of a Multi-Robot Swarm Approach Based on Natural Selection}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems}, volume = {76}, year = {2014}, month = {Nov.}, pages = {353-381}, author = {Couceiro, M S and Martins, F M and Rocha, R P and Ferreira, N M F} } @conference {144, title = {Multi-Target Visual Tracking with UAVs}, booktitle = {2014 IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems}, year = {2014}, month = {09/2014}, address = {Chicago, IL}, abstract = {We study the problem of tracking mobile targets using a team of aerial robots. Each robot carries a camera to detect targets moving on the ground. The overall goal is to plan for the trajectories of the robots in order to track the most number of targets, and accurately estimate the target locations using the images. The two objectives can conflict since a robot may fly to a higher altitude and potentially cover a larger number of targets at the expense of accuracy. We start by showing that k >= 3 robots may not be able to track all n targets while maintaining a constant factor approximation of the optimal quality of tracking at all times. Next, we study the problem of choosing robot trajectories to maximize either the number of targets tracked or the quality of tracking. We formulate this problem as the weighted version of a combinatorial optimization problem known as the Maximum Group Coverage (MGC) problem. A greedy algorithm yields a 1/2 approximation for the weighted MGC problem. Finally, we evaluate the algorithm and the sensing model through simulations and preliminary experiments.}, author = {Pratap Tokekar and Volkan Isler and Antonio Franchi} } @conference {GargPersistent2014, title = {Persistent Monitoring of Stochastic Spatio-temporal Phenomena with a Small Team of Robots}, booktitle = {Robotics: Science and Systems}, year = {2014}, month = {Jul}, address = {Berkeley, CA}, author = {Sahil Garg and Nora Ayanian} } @article {147, title = {Self-Organized Aggregation without Computation}, journal = {The International Journal of Robotics Research}, volume = {33}, year = {2014}, pages = {1145-1161}, keywords = {aggregation, minimal information processing, rendezvous, swarm robotics}, doi = {10.1177/0278364914525244}, author = {Gauci, Melvin and Chen, Jianing and Li, Wei and Dodd, Tony J. and Gross, Roderich} } @article {155, title = {Stochastic Optimal Enhancement of Distributed Formation Control Using Kalman Smoothers}, journal = {Robotica}, volume = {32}, year = {2014}, month = {03/2014}, pages = {305-324}, author = {Ross Anderson and Dejan Milutinovi{\'c}} } @article {401, title = {On the Vulnerabilities of the Virtual Force Approach to Mobile Sensor Deployment}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing}, volume = {13}, year = {2014}, pages = {2592-2605}, author = {N. Bartolini and G. Bongiovanni and T. F. La Porta and S. Silvestri} } @conference {164, title = {Adaptive Force/Velocity Control for Multi-Robot Cooperative Manipulation under Uncertain Kinematic Parameters}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems}, year = {2013}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2013.6696369}, url = {;}, author = {S. Erhart and S. Hirche} } @article {216, title = {An Aerial-Ground Robotic System for Navigation and Obstacle Mapping in Large Outdoor Areas}, journal = {Sensors}, volume = {13}, year = {2013}, pages = {1247}, abstract = {There are many outdoor robotic applications where a robot must reach a goal position or explore an area without previous knowledge of the environment around it. Additionally, other applications (like path planning) require the use of known maps or previous information of the environment. This work presents a system composed by a terrestrial and an aerial robot that cooperate and share sensor information in order to address those requirements. The ground robot is able to navigate in an unknown large environment aided by visual feedback from a camera on board the aerial robot. At the same time, the obstacles are mapped in real-time by putting together the information from the camera and the positioning system of the ground robot. A set of experiments were carried out with the purpose of verifying the system applicability. The experiments were performed in a simulation environment and outdoor with a medium-sized ground robot and a mini quad-rotor. The proposed robotic system shows outstanding results in simultaneous navigation and mapping applications in large outdoor environments.}, issn = {1424-8220}, doi = {10.3390/s130101247}, url = {http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/13/1/1247}, author = {Garz{\'o}n, Mario and Valente, Jo{\~a}o and Zapata, David and Barrientos, Antonio} } @conference {36, title = {Coverage search in 3D}, year = {2013}, address = {Linkoeping, Sweden}, abstract = {Searching with a sensor for objects and to observe parts of a known environment efficiently is a fundamental problem in many real-world robotic applications such as household robots searching for objects, inspection robots searching for leaking pipelines, and rescue robots searching for survivors after a disaster. We consider the problem of identifying and planning efficient view point sequences for covering complex 3d environments. We compare empirically several variants of our algorithm that allow to trade-off schedule computation against execution time. Our results demonstrate that, despite the intractability of the overall problem, computing effective solutions for coverage search in real 3d environments is feasible.}, keywords = {3D environments, coverage search, Educational institutions, execution time, household robots, image sequences, inspection robots, leaking pipelines search, objects search, path planning, Planning, rescue robots, Robot sensing systems, robot vision, robotic applications, schedule computation, Search problems, sensor, service robots, solid modelling, survivors search, Three-dimensional displays, Traveling salesman problems, view point sequences}, doi = {10.1109/SSRR.2013.6719340}, author = {Dornhege, C. and Kleiner, A. and Kolling, A.} } @conference {37, title = {Coverage search in 3D}, booktitle = {Proc. of the {IEEE} Int. Workshop on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics {(SSRR)}, year = {2013}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Linkoeping, Sweden}, abstract = {Searching with a sensor for objects and to observe parts of a known environment efficiently is a fundamental problem in many real-world robotic applications such as household robots searching for objects, inspection robots searching for leaking pipelines, and rescue robots searching for survivors after a disaster. We consider the problem of identifying and planning efficient view point sequences for covering complex 3d environments. We compare empirically several variants of our algorithm that allow to trade-off schedule computation against execution time. Our results demonstrate that, despite the intractability of the overall problem, computing effective solutions for coverage search in real 3d environments is feasible.}, keywords = {3D environments, coverage search, Educational institutions, execution time, household robots, image sequences, inspection robots, leaking pipelines search, objects search, path planning, Planning, rescue robots, Robot sensing systems, robot vision, robotic applications, schedule computation, Search problems, sensor, service robots, solid modelling, survivors search, Three-dimensional displays, Traveling salesman problems, view point sequences}, doi = {10.1109/SSRR.2013.6719340}, author = {Dornhege, C. and Kleiner, A. and Kolling, A.} } @article {34, title = {Decentralized connectivity maintenance for cooperative control of mobile robotic systems}, journal = {The International Journal of Robotics Research (SAGE)}, volume = {32}, year = {2013}, month = {October}, pages = {1411-1423}, issn = {1741-3176}, author = {Lorenzo Sabattini and Nikhil Chopra and Cristian Secchi} } @article {81, title = {A decentralized controller-observer scheme for multi-agent weighted centroid tracking}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control}, volume = {58}, year = {2013}, pages = {1310{\textendash}1316}, author = {Antonelli, Gianluca and Arrichiello, Filippo and Caccavale, Fabrizio and Marino, Alessandro} } @article {202, title = {Distributed Multi-Robot Patrol: A Scalable and Fault-Tolerant Framework}, journal = {Robotics and Autonomous Systems}, volume = {61}, year = {2013}, month = {Dec.}, pages = {1572-1587}, author = {Portugal, D. and Rocha, R.P.} } @conference {41, title = {Fast Guaranteed Search With Unmanned Aerial Vehicles}, booktitle = {Proc. of the IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2013}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, abstract = {In this paper we consider the problem of searching for an arbitrarily smart and fast evader in a large environment with a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) while providing guarantees of detection. Our emphasis is on the fast execution of efficient search strategies that minimize the number of UAVs and the search time. We present the first approach for computing fast search strategies utilizing additional searchers to speed up the execution time and thereby enabling large scale UAV search. In order to scale to very large environments when using UAVs one would either have to overcome the energy limitations of UAVs or pay the cost of utilizing additional UAVs to speed up the search. Our approach is based on coordinating UAVs on sweep lines, covered by the UAV sensors, that move simultaneously through an environment. We present some simulation results that show a significant reduction in execution time when using multiple UAVs and a demonstration of a real system with three ARDrones.}, keywords = {autonomous aerial vehicles;multi-robot systems;search problems;sensors;AR.Drone 2.0;UAV sensors;fast guaranteed search;search problem;search strategies;unmanned aerial vehicles;Delays;Robot kinematics;Robot sensing systems;Search problems;Surveillance}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2013.6697229}, author = {Kolling, A. and Kleiner, A. and Rudol, P} } @conference {39, title = {Fast Guaranteed Search With Unmanned Aerial Vehicles}, booktitle = {Proc. of the IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2013}, abstract = {In this paper we consider the problem of searching for an arbitrarily smart and fast evader in a large environment with a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) while providing guarantees of detection. Our emphasis is on the fast execution of efficient search strategies that minimize the number of UAVs and the search time. We present the first approach for computing fast search strategies utilizing additional searchers to speed up the execution time and thereby enabling large scale UAV search. In order to scale to very large environments when using UAVs one would either have to overcome the energy limitations of UAVs or pay the cost of utilizing additional UAVs to speed up the search. Our approach is based on coordinating UAVs on sweep lines, covered by the UAV sensors, that move simultaneously through an environment. We present some simulation results that show a significant reduction in execution time when using multiple UAVs and a demonstration of a real system with three ARDrones.}, keywords = {AR.Drone 2.0, autonomous aerial vehicles, Delays, fast guaranteed search, Multi-robot systems, Robot kinematics, Robot sensing systems, search problem, Search problems, search strategies, sensors, Surveillance, UAV sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2013.6697229}, author = {Kolling, A. and Kleiner, A. and Rudol, P.} } @conference {38, title = {Fast task-sequence allocation for heterogeneous robot teams with a human in the loop}, booktitle = {Proc. of the IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems {(IROS)}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Efficient task allocation with timing constraints to a team of possibly heterogeneous robots is a challenging problem with application, e.g., in search and rescue. In this paper a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) approach is proposed for assigning heterogeneous robot teams to the simultaneous completion of sequences of tasks with specific requirements such as completion deadlines. For this purpose our approach efficiently combines the strength of state of the art Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) solvers with human expertise in mission scheduling. We experimentally show that simple and intuitive inputs by a human user have substantial impact on both computation time and quality of the solution. The presented approach can in principle be applied to quite general missions for robot teams with human supervision.}, keywords = {computation time, Computational modeling, fast task sequence allocation, heterogeneous robot teams, heterogeneous robots, human in the loop, human supervision, human user, integer programming, linear programming, Mathematical model, MILP solvers, mission scheduling, mixed integer linear programming, Multi-robot systems, Resource management, Robot kinematics, Schedules, task allocation}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2013.6696570}, author = {Petersen, K. and Kleiner, A. and Von Stryk, O.} } @conference {162, title = {Formation-based approach for multi-robot cooperative manipulation based on optimal control design}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Cooperative manipulation, where several robots collaboratively transport an object, poses a great challenge in robotics. In order to avoid object deformations in cooperative manipulation, formation rigidity of the robots is desired. This work proposes a novel linear state feedback controller that combines both optimal goal regulation and a relaxed form of the formation rigidity constraint, exploiting an underlying distributed impedance control scheme. Since the presented control design problem is in a biquadratic LQR-like form, we present an iterative design algorithm to compute the controller. As an intermediate result, an approximated state-space model of an interconnected robot system is derived. The controller design approach is evaluated in a full-scale multi-robot experiment.}, url = {;}, author = {D. Sieber and F. Deroo and S. Hirche} } @article {45, title = {A Frontier-Void-Based Approach for Autonomous Exploration in 3D}, journal = {Advanced Robotics}, volume = {27}, year = {2013}, pages = {459{\textendash}468}, abstract = {We consider the problem of an autonomous robot searching for objects in unknown 3d space. Similar to the well known frontier-based exploration in 2d, the problem is to determine a minimal sequence of sensor viewpoints until the entire search space has been explored. We introduce a novel approach that combines the two concepts of voids, which are unexplored volumes in 3d, and frontiers, which are regions on the boundary between voids and explored space. Our approach has been evaluated on a mobile platform using a 5-DOF manipulator searching for victims in a simulated USAR setup. The results indicate the real-world capability and search efficiency of the proposed method.}, author = {C. Dornhege and A. Kleiner} } @conference {44, title = {Guaranteed search with large teams of unmanned aerial vehicles}, booktitle = {Proc. of the {IEEE} Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)}, year = {2013}, address = {Karlsruhe, Germany}, abstract = {We consider the problem of detecting moving and evading targets by a team of coordinated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in large and complex 2D and 2.5D environments. Our approach is based on the coordination of 2D sweep lines that move through the environment to clear it from all contamination, representing the possibility of a target being located in an area, and thereby detecting all targets. The trajectories of the UAVs are implicitly given by the motion of these sweep lines and their costs are determined by the number of UAVs needed. A novel algorithm that computes low cost coordination strategies of the UAV sweep lines in simply connected polygonal environments is presented. The resulting strategies are then converted to strategies clearing multiply connected and 2.5D environments. Experiments on real and artificial elevation maps with complex visibility constraints are presented and demonstrate the feasibility and scalability of the approach. The algorithms used for the experiments are made available on a public repository.}, keywords = {2D environment, 2D sweep lines, autonomous aerial vehicles, collision avoidance, Contamination, coordinated unmanned aerial vehicle team, guaranteed search, helicopters, low cost coordination strategies, Multi-robot systems, multiply-connected 2.5D environment, public repository, quadrotors, robot operating system, Robot sensing systems, ROS framework, Search problems, Shape, simply-connected polygonal environment, sweep line motion, Trajectory, trajectory computing, trajectory control, UAV trajectory, unmanned aerial vehicles}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630990}, author = {Kleiner, A. and Kolling, A.} } @article {48, title = {Hierarchical Visibility for Guaranteed Search in Large-Scale Outdoor Terrain}, journal = {JAAMAS}, volume = {26}, year = {2013}, pages = {1{\textendash}36}, abstract = {Searching for moving targets in large environments is a challenging task that is relevant in several problem domains, such as capturing an invader in a camp, guarding security facilities, and searching for victims in large-scale search and rescue scenarios. The guaranteed search problem is to coordinate the search of a team of agents to guarantee the discovery of all targets. In this paper we present a self-contained solution to this problem in 2.5D real-world domains represented by digital elevation models (DEMs). We introduce hierarchical sampling on DEMs for selecting heuristically the close to minimal set of locations from which the entire surface of the DEM can be guarded. Locations are utilized to form a search graph on which search strategies for mobile agents are computed. For these strategies schedules are derived which include agent paths that are directly executable in the terrain. Presented experimental results demonstrate the performance of the method. The practical feasibility of our approach has been validated during a field experiment at the Gascola robot training site where teams of humans equipped with iPads successfully searched for adversarial and omniscient evaders. The field demonstration is the largest-scale implementation of a guaranteed search algorithm to date.}, keywords = {Exploration, guaranteed search, HRI, Human{\textendash}robot-interaction, Moving target search, path planning, pursuit-evasion, task allocation}, issn = {1387-2532}, doi = {10.1007/s10458-011-9180-7}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10458-011-9180-7}, author = {Kleiner, A. and Kolling, A. and Lewis, M. and Sycara, K.} } @inbook {170, title = {How Much Worth Is Coordination of Mobile Robots for Exploration in Search and Rescue?}, booktitle = {RoboCup 2012: Robot Soccer World Cup XVI}, series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}, number = {7500}, year = {2013}, pages = {106{\textendash}117}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, chapter = {How Much Worth Is Coordination of Mobile Robots for Exploration in Search and Rescue?}, address = {Berlin, Heidelberg}, abstract = {Exploration of unknown environments is an enabling task for several applications, including map building and search and rescue. It is widely recognized that several benefits can be derived from deploying multiple mobile robots in exploration, including increased robustness and efficiency. Two main issues of multirobot exploration are the exploration strategy employed to select the most convenient observation locations the robots should reach in a partially known environment and the coordination method employed to manage the interferences between the actions performed by robots. From the literature, it is difficult to assess the relative effects of these two issues on the system performance. In this paper, we contribute to filling this gap by studying a search and rescue setting in which different coordination methods and exploration strategies are implemented and their contributions to an efficient exploration of indoor environments are comparatively evaluated. Although preliminary, our experimental data lead to the following results: the role of exploration strategies dominates that of coordination methods in determining the performance of an exploring multirobot system in a highly structured indoor environment, while the situation is reversed in a less structured indoor environment.}, keywords = {coordination, Exploration, multirobot, Search and Rescue}, isbn = {978-3-642-39250-4}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-39250-4_11}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39250-4_11}, author = {Amigoni, Francesco and Basilico, Nicola and Quattrini~Li, Alberto}, editor = {Chen, Xiaoping and Stone, Peter and Sucar, Luis Enrique and Zant, Tijn} } @conference {163, title = {An impedance-based control architecture for multi-robot cooperative dual-arm mobile manipulation}, booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems}, year = {2013}, address = {Tokyo}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2013.6696370}, url = {;}, author = {S. Erhart and D. Sieber and S. Hirche} } @conference {SungImproving2013, title = {Improving the Performance of Multi-Robot Systems by Task Switching}, booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2013}, month = {May}, pages = {2984 - 2991}, address = {Karlsruhe, Germany}, author = {Cynthia Sung and Nora Ayanian and Daniela Rus} } @conference {364, title = {Improving the performance of multi-robot systems by task switching}, booktitle = {2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2013}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Karlsruhe, Germany}, isbn = {978-1-4673-5641-1}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630993}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6630993/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx7/6615630/6630547/06630993.pdf?arnumber=6630993}, author = {Sung, Cynthia and Ayanian, Nora and Rus, Daniela} } @conference {161, title = {Iterative optimal feedback control design under relaxed rigidity constraints for multi-robot cooperative manipulation}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 52nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC)}, year = {2013}, address = {Florenz, Italien}, abstract = {Cooperative manipulation of multiple robots presents an interesting control application scenario of coupled dynamical systems with a common goal. Here, we treat the problem of moving a formation of physically interconnected robots to a desired goal while maintaining the formation. This control problen is for example relevant in cooperative transport of an object from an initial to a final configuration by mobile robotic manipulators. To achieve the control goal we formulate an LQR-like optimal control problem that, in addition to goal regulation and minimization of input energy, includes the formation rigidity constraint in a relaxed form expressed as a biquadratic penalty term. The control problem is solved by two different iterative algorithms, a gradient descent using adjoint states and a quasi-Newton method, that determine a static linear state-feedback matrix. The proposed control design and the iterative algorithms are validated and compared in numerical simulations showing the efficacy of both approaches.}, url = {;}, author = {D. Sieber and F. Deroo and S. Hirche} } @article {204, title = {Multi-Robot Patrolling Algorithms: Examining Performance and Scalability}, journal = {Advanced Robotics}, volume = {27}, year = {2013}, pages = {325-336}, author = {D. Portugal and R.P. Rocha} } @conference {42, title = {Multi-UAV Motion Planning for Guaranteed Search}, booktitle = {Proc. of the 12th Int. Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2013)}, year = {2013}, address = {St. Paul, MN, USA}, abstract = {We consider the problem of detecting all moving and evading targets in 2.5D environments with teams of UAVs. Targets are assumed to be fast and omniscient while UAVs are only equipped with limited range detection sensors and have no prior knowledge about the location of targets. We present an algorithm that, given an elevation map of the environment, computes synchronized trajectories for the UAVs to guarantee the detection of all targets. The approach is based on coordinating the motion of multiple UAVs on sweep lines to clear the environment from contamination, which represents the possibility of an undetected target being located in an area. The goal is to compute trajectories that minimize the number of UAVs needed to execute the guaranteed search. This is achieved by converting 2D strategies, computed for a polygonal representation of the environment, to 2.5D strategies. We present methods for this conversion and consider cost of motion and visibility constraints. Experimental results demonstrate feasibility and scalability of the approach. Experiments are carried out on real and artificial elevation maps and provide the basis for future deployments of large teams of real UAVs for guaranteed search.}, keywords = {guaranteed search, multi-robot, multi-UAV, pursuit-evasion}, isbn = {978-1-4503-1993-5}, url = {http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2484920.2484936}, author = {A. Kolling and A. Kleiner} } @article {136, title = {Mutual Localization in Multi-Robot Systems using Anonymous Relative Measurements}, journal = {The International Journal of Robotics Research}, volume = {32}, year = {2013}, month = {09/2013}, pages = {1303-1322}, abstract = {We propose a decentralized method to perform mutual localization in multi-robot systems using anonymous relative measurements, i.e., measurements that do not include the identity of the measured robot. This is a challenging and practically relevant operating scenario that has received little attention in the literature. Our mutual localization algorithm includes two main components: a probabilistic multiple registration stage, which provides all data associations that are consistent with the relative robot measurements and the current belief, and a dynamic filtering stage, which incorporates odometric data into the estimation process. The design of the proposed method proceeds from a detailed formal analysis of the implications of anonymity on the mutual localization problem. Experimental results on a team of differential-drive robots illustrate the effectiveness of the approach, and in particular its robustness against false positives and negatives that may affect the robot measurement process. We also provide an experimental comparison that shows how the proposed method outperforms more classical approaches that may be designed building on existing techniques. The source code of the proposed method is available within the MLAM ROS stack.}, keywords = {Localization of ground robots}, author = {Antonio Franchi and Giuseppe Oriolo and Paolo Stegagno} } @article {137, title = {A Passivity-Based Decentralized Strategy for Generalized Connectivity Maintenance}, journal = {The International Journal of Robotics Research}, volume = {32}, year = {2013}, month = {03/2013}, pages = {299-323}, abstract = {The design of decentralized controllers coping with the typical constraints on the inter-robot sensing/communication capabilities represents a promising direction in multi-robot research thanks to the inherent scalability and fault tolerance of these approaches. In these cases, connectivity of the underlying interaction graph plays a fundamental role: it represents a necessary condition for allowing a group or robots achieving a common task by resorting to only local information. Goal of this paper is to present a novel decentralized strategy able to enforce connectivity maintenance for a group of robots in a flexible way, that is, by granting large freedom to the group internal configuration so as to allow establishment/deletion of interaction links at anytime as long as global connectivity is preserved. A peculiar feature of our approach is that we are able to embed into a unique connectivity preserving action a large number of constraints and requirements for the group: (i) presence of specific inter-robot sensing/communication models, (ii) group requirements such as formation control, and (iii) individual requirements such as collision avoidance. This is achieved by defining a suitable global potential function of the second smallest eigenvalue λ2 of the graph Laplacian, and by computing, in a decentralized way, a gradient-like controller built on top of this potential. Simulation results obtained with a group of quadorotor UAVs and UGVs, and experimental results obtained with four quadrotor UAVs, are finally presented to thoroughly illustrate the features of our approach on a concrete case study.}, keywords = {Bilateral Shared Control of Mobile Robots, Connectivity maintenance, Motion control of multiple robots}, author = {Paolo Robuffo Giordano and Antonio Franchi and Cristian Secchi and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff} } @article {203, title = {A PSO Multi-Robot Exploration Approach Over Unreliable MANETs}, journal = {Advanced Robotics}, volume = {27}, year = {2013}, pages = {1221-1234}, author = {M.S. Couceiro and R. P. Rocha and N.M.F. Ferreira} } @conference {43, title = {RMASBench: Benchmarking Dynamic Multi-Agent Coordination in Urban Search and Rescue}, booktitle = {Proc. of the 12th Int. Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2013)}, year = {2013}, abstract = {We propose RMASBench, a new benchmarking tool based on the RoboCup Rescue Agent simulation system, to easily compare coordination approaches in a dynamic rescue scenario. In particular, we offer simple interfaces to plug-in coordination algorithms without the need for implementing and tuning low-level agents behaviors. Moreover, we add to the realism of the simulation by providing a large scale crowd simulator, which exploits GPUs parallel architecture, to simulate the behavior of thousands of agents in real time. Finally, we focus on a specific coordination problem where fire fighters must combat fires and prevent them from spreading across the city. We formalize this problem as a Distributed Constraint Optimization Problem and we compare two state-of-the art solution techniques: DSA and MaxSum. We perform an extensive empirical evaluation of such techniques considering several standard measures for performance (e.g. damages to buildings) and coordination overhead (e.g., message exchanged and non concurrent constraint checks). Our results provide interesting insights on limitations and benefits of DSA and MaxSum in our rescue scenario and demonstrate that RMASBench offers powerful tools to compare coordination algorithms in a dynamic environment.}, keywords = {agent coordination, agent simulation, DCOP, performance metrics}, isbn = {978-1-4503-1993-5}, url = {http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2484920.2485139}, author = {A. Kleiner and A. Farinelli and S. Ramchurn and B. Shi and F. Maffioletti and R. Reffato} } @article {40, title = {RoboCup Rescue Robot and Simulation Leagues}, journal = {AI Magazine}, volume = {34}, year = {2013}, pages = {78{\textendash}87}, abstract = {The RoboCup Rescue Robot and Simulation competitions have been held since 2000. The experience gained during these competitions has increased the maturity level of the field, which allowed deploying robots after real disasters (e.g. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster). This article provides an overview of these competitions and highlights the state of the art and the lessons learned.}, author = {H. L. Akin and N. Ito and A. Jacoff and A. Kleiner and J. Pellenz and A. Visser} } @conference {404, title = {On the security vulnerabilities of the virtual force approach to mobile sensor deployment}, booktitle = {2013 Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM}, year = {2013}, author = {N. Bartolini and G. Bongiovanni and T. L. Porta and S. Silvestri} } @conference {336, title = {Semantically-Informed Coordinated Multirobot Exploration of Relevant Areas in Search and Rescue Settings}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Mobile Robots (ECMR)}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Coordinated multirobot exploration involves autonomous discovering of unknown features in environments by using multiple robots. Autonomously exploring mobile robots are driven by knowledge of the already explored portions of the environment, usually represented in a metric map. In the literature, some works addressed the use of semantic knowledge in exploration, which, embedded in a semantic map, associates spatial concepts (like {\textquoteleft}rooms{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}corridors{\textquoteright}) with metric entities, showing its effectiveness to improve total explored area. In this paper, we build on these results and propose a system that exploits semantic information to push robots to explore areas that are relevant, according to a priori information provided by human users. We tested our semantic-based multirobot exploration system in a reliable robot simulator and evaluated its performance in realistic search and rescue settings with respect to state-of-the-art approaches.}, doi = {10.1109/ECMR.2013.6698845}, author = {Riccardo Cipolleschi and Michele Giusto and Quattrini~Li, Alberto and Francesco Amigoni} } @article {138, title = {Semi-Autonomous Haptic Teleoperation Control Architecture of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles}, journal = {IEEE/ASME Transaction on Mechatronics, Focused Section on Aerospace Mechatronics}, volume = {18}, year = {2013}, month = {08/2013}, pages = {1334-1345}, abstract = {We propose a novel semi-autonomous haptic teleoperation control architecture for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), consisting of three control layers: 1) UAV control layer, where each UAV is abstracted by, and is controlled to follow the trajectory of, its own kinematic Cartesian virtual point (VP); 2) VP control layer, which modulates each VP{\textquoteright}s motion according to the teleoperation commands and local artificial potentials (for VP-VP/VP-obstacle collision avoidance and VP-VP connectivity preservation); and 3) teleoperation layer, through which a single remote human user can command all (or some) of the VPs{\textquoteright} velocity while haptically perceiving the state of all (or some) of the UAVs and obstacles. Master-passivity/slave-stability and some asymptotic performance measures are proved. Experimental results using four custom-built quadrotor-type UAVs are also presented to illustrate the theory.}, keywords = {Bilateral Shared Control of Mobile Robots, Motion control of multiple robots, UAV hardware platforms}, author = {Dongjun Lee and Antonio Franchi and Hyoung Il Son and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff and Paolo Robuffo Giordano} } @article {107, title = {A Survey and Analysis of Multi-Robot Coordination}, journal = {International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems}, volume = {10}, year = {2013}, month = {December}, doi = {10.5772/57313}, url = {http://www.intechopen.com/journals/international_journal_of_advanced_robotic_systems/a-survey-and-analysis-of-multi-robot-coordination}, author = {Zhi Yan and Nicolas Jouandeau and Arab Ali Cherif} } @conference {nair2013tracking, title = {Tracking control of spacecraft formation flying using Fuzzy sliding mode control with adaptive tuning technique}, booktitle = {Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ), 2013 IEEE International Conference on}, year = {2013}, pages = {1{\textendash}8}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Behera, Laxmidhar} } @conference {146, title = {3D Mutual Localization with Anonymous Bearing Measurements}, booktitle = {2012 IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2012}, month = {05/2012}, address = {St. Paul, MN}, abstract = {We present a decentralized algorithm for estimating mutual 3-D poses in a group of mobile robots, such as a team of UAVs. Our algorithm uses bearing measurements reconstructed, e.g., by a visual sensor, and inertial measurements coming from the robot IMU. Since identification of a specific robot in a group would require visual tagging and may be cumbersome in practice, we simply assume that the bear- ing measurements are anonymous. The proposed localization method is a non-trivial extension of our previous algorithm for the 2-D case, and exhibits similar performance and robustness. An experimental validation of the algorithm has been performed using quadrotor UAVs.}, keywords = {Distributed algorithms, Estimation, Localization, Localization of aerial robots, Multi-robot systems}, author = {Marco Cognetti and Paolo Stegagno and Antonio Franchi and Giuseppe Oriolo and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff} } @article {141, title = {Bilateral Teleoperation of Groups of Mobile Robots with Time-Varying Topology}, journal = {IEEE Transaction on Robotics}, volume = {28}, year = {2012}, month = {10/2012}, pages = {1019 -1033}, abstract = {In this paper, a novel decentralized control strategy for bilaterally teleoperating heterogeneous groups of mobile robots from different domains (aerial, ground, marine and under- water) is proposed. By using a decentralized control architecture, the group of robots, treated as the slave-side, is made able to navigate in a cluttered environment while avoiding obstacles, inter-robot collisions and following the human motion commands. Simultaneously, the human operator acting on the master side is provided with a suitable force feedback informative of the group response and of the interaction with the surrounding environment. Using passivity based techniques, we allow the behavior of the group to be as flexible as possible with arbitrary split and join events (e.g., due to inter-robot visibility/packet losses or specific task requirements) while guaranteeing the stability of the system. We provide a rigorous analysis of the system stability and steady-state characteristics, and validate performance through human/hardware-in-the-tloop simulations by considering a heterogeneous fleet of UAVs and UGVs as case study. Finally, we also provide an experimental validation with 4 quadrotor UAV}, keywords = {Bilateral Shared Control of Mobile Robots, Decentralized control, Distributed algorithms, Force feedback, Haptics, Motion control of multiple robots, Multi-robot systems, Teleoperation}, author = {Antonio Franchi and Cristian Secchi and Hyoung Il Son and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff and Paolo Robuffo Giordano} } @article {134, title = {On Cooperative Patrolling: Optimal Trajectories, Complexity Analysis, and Approximation Algorithms}, journal = {IEEE Transaction on Robotics}, volume = {28}, year = {2012}, month = {06/2012}, pages = {592-606}, abstract = {The subject of this work is the patrolling of an environment with the aid of a team of autonomous agents. We consider both the design of open-loop trajectories with optimal properties, and of distributed control laws converging to optimal trajectories. As performance criteria, the refresh time and the latency are considered, i.e., respectively, time gap between any two visits of the same region, and the time necessary to inform every agent about an event occurred in the environment. We associate a graph with the environment, and we study separately the case of a chain, tree, and cyclic graph. For the case of chain graph, we first describe a minimum refresh time and latency team trajectory, and we propose a polynomial time algorithm for its computation. Then, we describe a distributed procedure that steers the robots toward an optimal trajectory. For the case of tree graph, a polynomial time algorithm is developed for the minimum refresh time problem, under the technical assumption of a constant number of robots involved in the patrolling task. Finally, we show that the design of a minimum refresh time trajectory for a cyclic graph is NP-hard, and we develop a constant factor approximation algorithm.}, keywords = {Coverage, Distributed algorithms, Multi-robot systems, Patrolling / Surveillance}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6122514}, author = {Fabio Pasqualetti and Antonio Franchi and Francesco Bullo} } @conference {AyanianDecentralized2012, title = {Decentralized Multirobot Control in Partially Known Environments with Dynamic Task Reassignment}, booktitle = {IFAC Workshop on Distributed Estimation and Control in Networked Systems}, year = {2012}, month = {Sept}, pages = {311-316}, address = {Santa Barbara, CA}, author = {Nora Ayanian and Daniela Rus and Vijay Kumar} } @article {135, title = {Distributed Pursuit-Evasion without Mapping and Global Localization via Local Frontiers}, journal = {Autonomous Robots}, volume = {32}, year = {2012}, month = {01/2012}, pages = {81-95}, abstract = {This paper addresses a visibility-based pursuit-evasion problem in which a team of mobile robots with limited sensing and communication capabilities must coordinate to detect any evaders in an unknown, multiply-connected planar environment. Our distributed algorithm to guarantee evader detection is built around maintaining complete coverage of the frontier between cleared and contaminated regions while expanding the cleared region. We detail a novel distributed method for storing and updating this frontier without building a map of the environment or requiring global localization. We demonstrate the functionality of the algorithm through simulations in realistic environments and through hardware experiments. We also compare Monte Carlo results for our algorithm to the theoretical optimum area cleared as a function of the number of robots available.}, keywords = {Coverage, Distributed algorithms, Multi-robot systems, Pursuit-evasion / Clearing}, url = {http://www.springerlink.com/content/a02pr41790ll754w/}, author = {Joseph W. Durham and Antonio Franchi and Francesco Bullo} } @conference {ranjith2012formation, title = {Formation Control of Non-holonomic Robots using Artificial Potential Field and Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control with Adaptive Tuning Technique}, booktitle = {International conference on advances in control and optimization of dynamical systems, IISc Bangalore, India (won 2nd best paper award)}, year = {2012}, pages = {1{\textendash}9}, author = {Ranjith, R and Behera, Laxmidhar} } @article {205, title = {A Fuzzified Systematic Adjustment of the Robotic Darwinian PSO}, journal = {Robotics and Autonomous Systems}, volume = {60}, year = {2012}, month = {Dec.}, pages = {1625-1639}, author = {Couceiro, M. S. and Machado, J. A. T. and Rocha, R. P. and Ferreira, N. M. F.} } @article {206, title = {Introducing the Fractional Order Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization}, journal = {Signal, Image and Video Processing, Special Issue on Fractional Signals and Systems}, volume = {6}, year = {2012}, month = {Sep.}, pages = {343-350}, author = {Couceiro, M. S. and Rocha, R. P. and Ferreira, N. M. and Machado, J. T.} } @article {207, title = {A Low-Cost Educational Platform for Swarm Robotics}, journal = {Journal of Robots, Education and Art}, volume = {1}, year = {2012}, month = {Feb.}, pages = {1-15}, author = {Couceiro, M. S. and Figueiredo, C. M. and Luz, J. M. and Ferreira, N. M. and Rocha, R. P.} } @article {35, title = {Modeling and Control of UAV Bearing-Formations with Bilateral High-Level Steering}, journal = {The International Journal of Robotics Research, Special Issue on 3D Exploration, Mapping, and Surveillance}, volume = {31}, year = {2012}, month = {10/2012}, pages = {1504-1525}, abstract = {In this paper we address the problem of controlling the motion of a group of UAVs bound to keep a formation defined in terms of only relative angles (i.e., a bearing-formation). This problem can naturally arise within the context of several multi-robot applications such as, e.g., exploration, coverage, and surveillance. First, we introduce and thoroughly analyze the concept and properties of bearing-formations, and provide a class of minimally linear sets of bearings sufficient to uniquely define such formations. We then propose a bearing-only formation controller requiring only bearing measurements, converging almost globally, and maintaining bounded inter-agent distances despite the lack of direct metric information. The controller still leaves the possibility to impose group motions tangent to the current bearing-formation. These can be either autonomously chosen by the robots because of any additional task (e.g., exploration), or exploited by an assisting human co-operator. For this latter {\textquoteleft}human-in-the-loop{\textquoteright} case, we propose a multi-master/multi-slave bilateral shared control system providing the co-operator with some suitable force cues informative of the UAV performance. The proposed theoretical framework is extensively validated by means of simulations and experiments with quadrotor UAVs equipped with onboard cameras. Practical limitations, e.g., limited field-of-view, are also considered.}, keywords = {Bilateral Shared Control of Mobile Robots, Decentralized control, Force feedback, Formation control, Haptics, Motion control of multiple robots, Multi-robot systems, Teleoperation}, author = {Antonio Franchi and Carlo Masone and Volker Grabe and Markus Ryll and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff and Paolo Robuffo Giordano} } @conference {98, title = {Rigidity Maintenance Control for Multi-Robot Systems}, booktitle = {2012 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference}, year = {2012}, month = {07/2012}, address = {Sydney, Australia}, abstract = {Rigidity of formations in multi-robot systems is important for formation control, localization, and sensor fusion. This work proposes a rigidity maintenance gradient controller for a multi-agent robot team. To develop such a controller, we first provide an alternative characterization of the rigidity matrix and use that to introduce the novel concept of the rigidity eigenvalue. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition relating the positivity of the rigidity eigenvalue to the rigidity of the formation. The rigidity maintenance controller is based on the gradient of the rigidity eigenvalue with respect to each robot position. This gradient has a naturally distributed structure, and is thus amenable to a distributed implementation. Additional requirements such as obstacle and inter-agent collision avoidance, as well as typical constraints such as limited sensing/communication ranges and line-of-sight occlusions, are also explicitly considered. Finally, we present a simulation with a group of seven quadrotor UAVs to demonstrate and validate the theoretical results.}, keywords = {Decentralized control, Formation control, Motion control of multiple robots, Multi-robot systems, Rigidity mainenance}, author = {Daniel Zelazo and Antonio Franchi and Frank Allg{\"o}wer and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff and Paolo Robuffo Giordano} } @article {402, title = {Sensor Activation and Radius Adaptation (SARA) in Heterogeneous Sensor Networks}, journal = {ACM Trans. Sen. Netw.}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, keywords = {Area coverage, heterogeneous devices, variable radii, wireless sensor networks}, issn = {1550-4859}, doi = {10.1145/2240092.2240098}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/2240092.2240098}, author = {N. Bartolini and Calamoneri, Tiziana and La Porta, Tom and Petrioli, Chiara and Silvestri, Simone} } @article {139, title = {Shared Control: Balancing Autonomy and Human Assistance with a Group of Quadrotor UAVs.}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, Special Issue on Aerial Robotics and the Quadrotor Platform}, volume = {19}, year = {2012}, month = {09/2012}, pages = {57-68}, abstract = {In this paper, we present a complete control framework and associated experimental testbed for the bilateral shared control of a group of quadrotor UAVs. This control architecture is applicable to any task and allows to integrate: i) a decentralized topological motion control (responsible for the mutual interactions in the UAV formation), ii) a human assistance module (allowing human intervention, whenever needed, on some aspects of the UAV group behavior), and iii) a force-feedback possibility (increasing the telepresence of the human assistants by providing suitable haptic cues informative of the UAV behavior). We will show, as worked-out case studies, how to specialize the topological motion controller to the relevant cases of constant, unconstrained and connected group topologies, and how to let a human operator intervening at the level of single UAVs or of the whole group dynamics. A detailed description of the experimental testbed is also provided with emphasis on the quadrotor UAV hardware and software architectures. Finally, the versatility of the proposed framework is demonstrated by means of experiments with real UAVs. Although quadrotors are used as actual robotic platforms, the proposed framework can be straightforwardly extended to many different kinds of UAVs with similar motion characteristics.}, keywords = {Bilateral Shared Control of Mobile Robots, Decentralized control, Force feedback, Formation control, Haptics, Middleware for robotics, Motion control of multiple robots, Multi-robot systems, UAV hardware platforms}, author = {Antonio Franchi and Cristian Secchi and Markus Ryll and Heinrich H. B{\"u}lthoff and Paolo Robuffo Giordano} } @conference {46, title = {The SHERPA project: smart collaboration between humans and ground-aerial robots for improving rescuing activities in alpine environments}, booktitle = {Proc. of the IEEE Int. Workshop on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)}, year = {2012}, address = {College Station, US}, abstract = {The goal of the paper is to present the foreseen research activity of the European project {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}SHERPA{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} whose activities will start officially on February 1th 2013. The goal of SHERPA is to develop a mixed ground and aerial robotic platform to support search and rescue activities in a real-world hostile environment, like the alpine scenario that is specifically targeted in the project. Looking into the technological platform and the alpine rescuing scenario, we plan to address a number of research topics about cognition and control. What makes the project potentially very rich from a scientific viewpoint is the heterogeneity and the capabilities to be owned by the different actors of the SHERPA system: the human rescuer is the {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}busy genius{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright}, working in team with the ground vehicle, as the {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}intelligent donkey{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright}, and with the aerial platforms, i.e. the {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}trained wasps{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}patrolling hawks{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright}. Indeed, the research activity focuses on how the {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}busy genius{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} and the {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}SHERPA animals{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} interact and collaborate with each other, with their own features and capabilities, toward the achievement of a common goal.}, keywords = {alpine environments, autonomous aerial vehicles, busy genius, Cognitive Systems, European project, Ground and Aerial Robotics, ground-aerial robots, human rescuer, intelligent donkey, patrolling hawks, real-world hostile environment, rescuing activities, Robust Control, Search and Rescue, search and rescue activities, SHERPA project, smart collaboration, telerobotics, trained wasps}, doi = {10.1109/SSRR.2012.6523905}, author = {Marconi, L. and Melchiorri, C. and Beetz, M. and Pangercic, D. and Siegwart, R. and Leutenegger, S. and Carloni, R. and Stramigioli, S. and Bruyninckx, H. and Doherty, P. and Kleiner, A. and Lippiello, V. and Finzi, A. and Siciliano, B. and Sala, A. and Tomatis, N.} } @conference {WagnerSubdimensional2012, title = {Subdimensional Expansion and Optimal Task Reassignment}, booktitle = {AAAI Symposium on Combinatorial Search}, year = {2012}, month = {July}, address = {Niagara Falls, ON, Canada}, author = {Glenn Wagner and Howie Choset and Nora Ayanian} } @conference {nair2012swarm, title = {Swarm aggregation using artificial potential field and fuzzy sliding mode control with adaptive tuning technique}, booktitle = {American Control Conference (ACC), 2012}, year = {2012}, pages = {6184{\textendash}6189}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, author = {Nair, Ranjith Ravindranathan and Behera, Laxmidhar} } @conference {47, title = {ARMO: Adaptive Road Map Optimization for Large Robot Teams}, booktitle = {IROS}, year = {2011}, address = {San Fransisco, USA}, abstract = {Autonomous robot teams that simultaneously dispatch transportation tasks are playing more and more an important role in present logistic centers and manufacturing plants. In this paper we consider the problem of robot motion planning for large robot teams in the industrial domain. We present adaptive road map optimization (ARMO) that is capable of adapting the road map in real time whenever the environment has changed. Based on linear programming, ARMO computes an optimal road map according to current environmental constraints (including human whereabouts) and the current demand for transportation tasks from loading stations in the plant. For detecting dynamic changes, the environment is describe by a grid map augmented with a hidden Markov model (HMM). We show experimentally that ARMO outperforms decoupled planning in terms of computation time and time needed for task completion.}, isbn = {978-1-61284-454-1}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2011.6048339}, author = {A. Kleiner and D. Sun and D. Meyer-Delius} } @article {403, title = {Autonomous Deployment of Heterogeneous Mobile Sensors}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing}, volume = {10}, year = {2011}, pages = {753-766}, author = {N. Bartolini and T. Calamoneri and T. F. La Porta and S. Silvestri} } @inbook {217, title = {Computational Science and Its Applications - ICCSA 2011: International Conference, Santander, Spain, June 20-23, 2011. Proceedings, Part III}, year = {2011}, pages = {58{\textendash}73}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, chapter = {Multi-robot Visual Coverage Path Planning: Geometrical Metamorphosis of the Workspace through Raster Graphics Based Approaches}, address = {Berlin, Heidelberg}, isbn = {978-3-642-21931-3}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-21931-3_5}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21931-3_5}, author = {Valente, Jo{\~a}o and Barrientos, Antonio and Del Cerro, Jaime and Rossi, Claudio and Colorado, Julian and Sanz, David and Garz{\'o}n, Mario}, editor = {Murgante, Beniamino and Gervasi, Osvaldo and Iglesias, Andr{\'e}s and Taniar, David and Apduhan, Bernady O.} } @mastersthesis {AyanianThesis, title = {Coordination of Multirobot Teams and Groups in Constrained Environments: Models, Abstractions, and Control Policies}, year = {2011}, school = {University of Pennsylvania}, type = {phd}, author = {Nora Ayanian} } @article {179, title = {A Generic Framework for Distributed Multirobot Cooperation}, journal = {Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems}, volume = {63}, year = {2011}, pages = {323-358}, author = {Sanem Sariel-Talay and Tucker R. Balch and Nadia Erdogan} } @conference {49, title = {A Mechanism for Dynamic Ride Sharing based on Parallel Auctions}, booktitle = {Proc. of the 22th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI)}, year = {2011}, address = {Barcelona, Spain}, abstract = {Car pollution is one of the major causes of green- house emissions, and traffic congestion is rapidly becoming a social plague. Dynamic Ride Sharing (DRS) systems have the potential to mitigate this problem by computing plans for car drivers, e.g. commuters, allowing them to share their rides. Ex- isting efforts in DRS are suffering from the problem that participants are abandoning the system after repeatedly failing to get a shared ride. In this paper we present an incentive compatible DRS solution based on auctions. While existing DRS systems are mainly focusing on fixed assignments that minimize the totally travelled distance, the presented approach is adaptive to individual preferences of the participants. Furthermore, our system allows to tradeoff the minimization of Vehicle Kilometers Travelled (VKT) with the overall probability of successful ride-shares, which is an important feature when bootstrapping the system. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to present a DRS solution based on auctions using a sealed-bid second price scheme.}, isbn = {978-1-57735-516-8}, author = {Kleiner, A. and Nebel, B. and Ziparo, V.} } @conference {ravindranathan2011multi, title = {Multi-Agent Formation Control using Adaptive Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control}, booktitle = {International UKIERI workshop on Brain computer Interface and assistive robotics, July 2011,University of Ulster, UK.}, year = {2011}, author = {Ravindranathan Nair, Ranjith and Behera, Laxmidhar} } @conference {145, title = {Mutual Localization using Anonymous Bearing Measurements}, booktitle = {2011 IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems}, year = {2011}, month = {09/2011}, address = {San Francisco, CA}, abstract = {This paper addresses the problem of mutual localization in multi-robot systems in presence of anonymous (i.e., without the identity information) bearing-only measurements. The solution of this problem is relevant for the design and implementation of any decentralized multi-robot algorithm/control. A novel algorithm for probabilistic multiple registration of these measurements is presented, where no global localization, distances, or identity are used. With respect to more conventional solutions that could be conceived on the basis of the current literature, our method is theoretically suitable for tasks requiring frequent, many-to-many encounters among agents (e.g., formation control, cooperative exploration, multiple-view environment sensing). An extensive experimental study validates our method and compares it with the fullinformative case of bearing plus-distance measurements. The results show that the proposed localization system exhibits an accuracy commensurate to our previous method [1] which uses bearing-plus-distance information.}, keywords = {Distributed algorithms, Estimation, Localization, Multi-robot systems}, author = {Paolo Stegagno and Marco Cognetti and Antonio Franchi and Giuseppe Oriolo} } @conference {211, title = {A Survey on Multi-Robot Patrolling Algorithms}, booktitle = {Proc. of 2nd Doctoral Conference on Computing, Electrical and Industrial Systems (DoCEIS{\textquoteright}11)}, year = {2011}, month = {Feb.}, address = {Costa da Caparica, Lisbon, Portugal}, author = {Portugal, D. and Rocha, R.} } @inbook {NA:VK:DK:ISRR09, title = {Synthesis of Controllers to Create, Maintain, and Reconfigure Robot Formations with Communication Constraints}, booktitle = {Robotics Research}, series = {Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics}, volume = {70}, year = {2011}, pages = {625-642}, publisher = {Springer Berlin / Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer Berlin / Heidelberg}, author = {Nora Ayanian and Kumar, Vijay and Koditschek, Daniel}, editor = {Pradalier, C{\'e}dric and Siegwart, Roland and Hirzinger, Gerhard} } @conference {AyanianSynthesis2011, title = {Synthesis of Feedback Controllers for Multiple Aerial Robots with Geometric Constraints}, booktitle = {Intl Conf Intelligent Robots and Systems}, year = {2011}, month = {Sept.}, pages = {3126-3131}, address = {San Francisco, CA}, author = {Nora Ayanian and Vinutha Kallem and Vijay Kumar} } @conference {361, title = {Synthesis of feedback controllers for multiple aerial robots with geometric constraints}, booktitle = {2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2011)2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems}, year = {2011}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {San Francisco, CA}, isbn = {978-1-61284-454-1}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2011.6094943}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6094943/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx5/6034548/6094399/06094943.pdf?arnumber=6094943}, author = {Ayanian, Nora and Kallem, Vinutha and Kumar, Vijay} } @conference {NA:VK:ICRA10, title = {Abstractions and Controllers for Groups of Robots in Environments with Obstacles}, booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2010}, month = {May}, pages = {3537 - 3542}, address = {Anchorage, AK}, keywords = {Aut:Yes, Coll:Other, Comp:Cent, End:Yes, Form:Other, Guar:Yes, Level:Hi, Num:M, Obs:Stat}, author = {Nora Ayanian and Vijay Kumar} } @conference {368, title = {Abstractions and controllers for groups of robots in environments with obstacles}, booktitle = {2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2010)2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2010}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Anchorage, AK}, isbn = {978-1-4244-5038-1}, doi = {10.1109/ROBOT.2010.5509534}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5509534/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx5/5501116/5509124/05509534.pdf?arnumber=5509534}, author = {Ayanian, Nora and Kumar, Vijay} } @article {369, title = {Decentralized Feedback Controllers for Multiagent Teams in Environments With Obstacles}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics}, volume = {26}, year = {2010}, month = {Jan-10-2010}, pages = {878 - 887}, issn = {1552-3098}, doi = {10.1109/TRO.2010.2062070}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5559517/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx5/8860/5592139/05559517.pdf?arnumber=5559517}, author = {Ayanian, Nora and Kumar, Vijay} } @article {AyanianDecentralized2010, title = {Decentralized feedback controllers for multi-agent teams in environments with obstacles}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics}, volume = {26}, number = {5}, year = {2010}, month = {October}, pages = {878 - 887}, author = {Nora Ayanian and Vijay Kumar} } @article {172, title = {Enforcing Network Connectivity in Robot Team Missions}, journal = {The International Journal of Robotics Research}, volume = {29}, year = {2010}, pages = {460-480}, abstract = {The growing interest in robot teams for surveillance or rescue missions entails new technological challenges. Robots have to move to complete their tasks while maintaining communication among themselves and with their human operators, in many cases without the aid of a communication infrastructure. Guaranteeing connectivity enables robots to explicitly exchange information needed in collaborative task execution, and allows operators to monitor or manually control any robot at all times. Network paths should be multi-hop, so as not to unnecessarily restrict the team{\textquoteright}s range. In this work we contribute a complete system which integrates three research aspects, usually studied separately, to achieve these characteristics: a multi-robot cooperative motion control technique based on a virtual spring{\textemdash}damper model which prevents communication network splits, a task allocation algorithm that takes advantage of network link information in order to ensure autonomous mission completion, and a network layer which works over wireless 802.11 devices, capable of sustaining hard real-time traffic and changing topologies. Link quality among peers is the key metric used to cooperatively move the robots and maintain uninterrupted connectivity, and the basis for novel ideas presented in each subsystem. Simulations and experimental results with real robots are presented and discussed.}, doi = {10.1177/0278364909358274}, url = {http://ijr.sagepub.com/content/29/4/460.abstract}, author = {Tardioli, D. and Mosteo, A.R. and Riazuelo, L. and Villarroel, J.L. and Montano, L.} } @conference {405, title = {Autonomous deployment of heterogeneous mobile sensors}, booktitle = {2009 17th IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols}, year = {2009}, author = {N. Bartolini and T. Calamoneri and T. La Porta and A. Massini and S. Silvestri} } @conference {173, title = {Guaranteed-Performance Multi-robot Routing under Limited Communication Range}, booktitle = {Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS)}, year = {2009}, publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, organization = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg}, address = {Tsukuba, Japan}, isbn = {978-3-642-00644-9}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-00644-9_43}, url = {http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007\%2F978-3-642-00644-9_43}, author = {Alejandro R Mosteo and Luis Montano and Michail G Lagoudakis} } @article {180, title = {Multiple Traveling Robot Problem: A Solution Based on Dynamic Task Selection and Robust Execution}, journal = {Mechatronics, IEEE/ASME Transactions on}, volume = {14}, year = {2009}, pages = {198-206}, keywords = {Distributed multirobot task allocation, dynamic task selection scheme, incremental task allocation, incremental task selection, mobile robots, Multi-robot systems, multiple traveling robot problem, multiple traveling robot problem (MTRP), NP-hard multiple traveling salesman problem, path planning, priority-based rough schedules, Robust Control, robust execution, robustness, travelling salesman problems}, issn = {1083-4435}, doi = {10.1109/TMECH.2009.2014157}, author = {Sanem Sariel-Talay and Tucker R. Balch and Nadia Erdogan} } @article {140, title = {The Sensor-based Random Graph Method for Cooperative Robot Exploration}, journal = {IEEE/ASME Transaction on Mechatronics}, volume = {14}, year = {2009}, month = {04/2009}, pages = {163-175}, abstract = {We present a decentralized cooperative exploration strategy for a team of mobile robots equipped with range finders. A roadmap of the explored area, with the associate safe region, is built in the form of a Sensor-based Random Graph (SRG). This is expanded by the robots by using a randomized local planner which automatically realizes a trade-off between information gain and navigation cost. The nodes of the SRG represent view configurations that have been visited by at least one robot, and are connected by arcs that represent safe paths. These paths have been actually traveled by the robots or added to the SRG to improve its connectivity. Decentralized cooperation and coordination mechanisms are used so as to guarantee exploration efficiency and avoid conflicts. Simulations and experiments are presented to show the performance of the proposed technique.}, keywords = {Coverage, Distributed algorithms, Exploration, Multi-robot systems}, author = {Antonio Franchi and Luigi Freda and Giuseppe Oriolo and Marilena Vendittelli} } @conference {NA:VK:ICRA08, title = {Decentralized feedback controllers for multi-agent teams in environments with obstacles}, booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2008}, month = {May}, pages = {1936-1941}, address = {Pasadena, CA}, keywords = {Aut:Yes, Coll:Yes, Comp:Part, Env:Yes, Form:Lab, Guar:Yes, Level:Low, Num:S, Obs:Stat}, author = {Nora Ayanian and Kumar,~V.} } @article {181, title = {Naval Mine Countermeasure Missions}, journal = {Robotics Automation Magazine, IEEE}, volume = {15}, year = {2008}, pages = {45-52}, keywords = {Analytical models, autonomous underwater vehicles, AUV, communication windows, Delay, DEMiR-CF framework, distributed incremental multirobot task selection scheme, Land vehicles, mobile robots, Multi-robot systems, multirobot-cooperation framework, naval engineering, naval mine countermeasure missions, online dynamic task allocation system, Performance analysis, remotely operated vehicles, scheduling, Sea floor, Sonar detection, task execution, task scheduling, undersea operations, Underwater communication, underwater vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles}, issn = {1070-9932}, doi = {10.1109/M-RA.2007.914920}, author = {Sanem Sariel and Tucker Balch and Nadia Erdogan} } @conference {362, title = {Recycling controllers}, booktitle = {2008 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2008)2008 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering}, year = {2008}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, address = {Arlington, VA}, isbn = {978-1-4244-2022-3}, doi = {10.1109/COASE.2008.4626521}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4626521/http://xplorestaging.ieee.org/ielx5/4622934/4626395/04626521.pdf?arnumber=4626521}, author = {Kress-Gazit, Hadas and Ayanian, Nora and Pappas, George J. and Kumar, Vijay} } @conference {HKG:NA:CASE08, title = {Recycling controllers}, booktitle = {IEEE International Conf. on Automation Science and Engineering}, year = {2008}, month = {Aug}, pages = {772-777}, address = {Washington, DC}, keywords = {atomic controller, automata theory, collision avoidance, control scheme design, control system synthesis, deadlock reduction, discrete automaton, heterogeneous robot team, mobile robots, Multi-robot systems, recycling controller}, doi = {10.1109/COASE.2008.4626521}, author = {Hadas Kress-Gazit and Nora Ayanian and George J. Pappas and Vijay Kumar} } @conference {NA:PW:AH:MR08, title = {Stochastic Control for Self-Assembly of {XB}ots}, booktitle = {ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference}, volume = {2}, year = {2008}, month = {August}, pages = {1169-1176}, address = {New York, NY}, author = {Nora Ayanian and Paul White and Adam Hal{\'a}sz and Mark Yim and Vijay Kumar} } @book {153, title = {Cells and Robots: Modeling and Control of Large-Size Agent Populations}, series = {Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics}, volume = {32}, year = {2007}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, author = {Dejan Milutinovi{\'c} and Pedro Lima} } @conference {ranjith2007decentralized, title = {A Decentralized Guidance Strategy for Multi-Aircrafts Flight Formation}, booktitle = {Proceedings of International Conference on Advances in Control and Optimization of Dynamical Systems , (ACODS{\textquoteright} 2007) , Feb 2007, IISc, Bangalore, India.}, year = {2007}, author = {Ranjith, R and Rajeev, U. P. and Pai, A. Dinesh} } @conference {184, title = {Incremental multi-robot task selection for resource constrained and interrelated tasks}, booktitle = {Proceedings of The IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)}, year = {2007}, keywords = {coordinated task selection problem, Intelligent robots, interrelated tasks, Multi-robot systems, multi-robot task selection, Notice of Violation, Performance evaluation, resource constrained tasks, Resource management, Robot kinematics, Robot sensing systems, Robotics and automation, Runtime, scheduling, USA Councils}, doi = {10.1109/IROS.2007.4399519}, author = {Sanem Sariel and Tucker Balch and Nadia Erdogan} } @inbook {182, title = {A Distributed Multi-robot Cooperation Framework for Real Time Task Achievement}, booktitle = {Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 7}, year = {2006}, pages = {187-196}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, isbn = {978-4-431-35878-7}, doi = {10.1007/4-431-35881-1_19}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/4-431-35881-1_19}, author = {Sanem Sariel and Tucker Balch}, editor = {Gini, Maria and Voyles, Richard} } @conference {186, title = {Efficient Bids on Task Allocation for Multi-Robot Exploration}, booktitle = {Proceedings of The 19th International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS)}, year = {2006}, author = {Sanem Sariel and Tucker Balch} } @inbook {183, title = {Empirical Evaluation of Auction-Based Coordination of AUVs in a Realistic Simulated Mine Countermeasure Task}, booktitle = {Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 7}, year = {2006}, pages = {197-206}, publisher = {Springer}, organization = {Springer}, isbn = {978-4-431-35878-7}, doi = {10.1007/4-431-35881-1_19}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/4-431-35881-1_19}, author = {Sanem Sariel and Tucker Balch and Jason Stack}, editor = {Gini, Maria and Voyles, Richard} } @article {152, title = {Modeling and Optimal Centralized Control of a Large-Size Robotic Population}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Robotics}, volume = {22}, year = {2006}, month = {12/2006}, pages = {1280-1285}, author = {Dejan Milutinovi{\'c} and Pedro Lima} } @conference {ranjith2006modeling, title = {Modeling drag Optimal Configuration of Aircrafts in Formation}, booktitle = {NCTT}, year = {2006}, pages = {111{\textendash}116}, author = {Ranjith, R and Rajeev, U. P. and Pai, A. Dinesh} } @conference {185, title = {Robust Multi-Robot Cooperation Through Dynamic Task Allocation and Precaution Routines}, booktitle = {The 3rd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO)}, year = {2006}, address = {Setubal, Portugal}, author = {Sanem Sariel and Tucker Balch} } @conference {174, title = {Auction-Based Multi-Robot Routing}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems}, year = {2005}, month = {June}, address = {Cambridge, USA}, author = {Michail G. Lagoudakis and Evangelos Markakis and David Kempe and Pinar Keskinocak and Anton Kleywegt and Sven Koenig and Craig Tovey and Adam Meyerson and Sonal Jain} } @article {209, title = {Cooperative Multi-Robot Systems: a study of Vision-based 3-D Mapping using Information Theory}, journal = {Robotics and Autonomous Systems}, volume = {53}, year = {2005}, month = {Dec.}, pages = {282-311}, author = {Rocha, R. and Dias, J. and Carvalho, A.} } @conference {187, title = {Real Time Auction Based Allocation of Tasks for Multi-Robot Exploration Problem in Dynamic Environments}, booktitle = {Integrating Planning into Scheduling: Papers from the 2005 AAAI Workshop, ed. Mark Boddy, Amedeo Cesta, and Stephen F. Smith, American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)}, year = {2005}, author = {Sanem Sariel and Tucker Balch} } @conference {154, title = {Biologically Inspired Stochastic Hybrid Control of Multi-Robot Systems}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR)}, year = {2003}, address = {Coimbra, Portugal}, author = {Dejan Milutinovi{\'c} and Pedro Lima and Michael Athans} } @mastersthesis {23, title = {Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Cooperation}, volume = {PhD}, year = {1994}, month = {02/1994}, url = {ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/1000-1499/AITR-1465/}, author = {Lynne E. Parker} } @article {208, title = {Towards a New Mobility Concept for Cities: Architecture \& Programming of Semi-Autonomous Electric Vehicles}, journal = {Industrial Robot}, volume = {34}, year = {200}, month = {Mar}, pages = {142-149}, author = {Rocha, R. and Cunha, A. and Varandas, J. and Dias, J.} }