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Developing a Low-Cost Robot Colony
Felix Duvallet, James Kong, Eugene Marinelli, Kevin Woo, Austin Buchan, Brian Coltin, Christopher Mar, Bradford Neuman
20 mins pres + 5 mins questions = 25 minutes
AAAI Fall Symposium 2007
November 10, 2007
Fix CMU logo – it looks out of place right now (probably move RC logo up or down)
Outline
Motivation and Goals Robots Sensors Infrastructure Behaviors Sustainability Future work
Motivation and Goals
Motivations– A low-cost experimental platform for multi-agent research– Tool for testing AI algorithms
Need capable robots
– Open-source software to promote similar research elsewhere
Goal: Develop a colony of robots– Low-cost robots– Homogeneous architecture– Distributed algorithms
Mot
ivat
ion
and
Goa
ls
Two hard things: experimental, and low-cost
Remove open-source software?
Colony Robot
BOM Dragonfly Board
Motors
ORBs
Range-Finders
XBee Module
Charging Contacts
Rob
ots
Cheap (~$350) but capable
Colony Brains
ATMega 128– 8MHz max– 128Kbytes program
memory
Programmed in C– arv-libc, avr-gcc– open-source, multi-
platform tools
Rob
ots
Sensors
Sharp IR rangefinders BOM
Also used:– Bump sensors– Pyroelectric sensors
Sen
sors
BOM – Bearing and Orientation Module
IR emitter/detector ring Emitter mode
– All emitters are powered simultaneously (beacon)
Detector mode– Detectors can be polled
individually for analog intensity readings
– Most excited sensor indicates bearing to emitting robot
Co-planarity assumption Must coordinate BOMs
Build connectivity graphs
1
20
Sen
sors
Wireless Infrastructure
Integrate BOM and wireless network– Beaconing robot sends wireless message– Receiving robots know when to poll BOM
Token-ring coordination scheme Share information about neighbors
– Propagate global connectivity graph
Infr
astr
uctu
re
Swarming
Local obstacle avoidance
Low coordination Highly scalable
Beh
avio
rs
Lemmings
Simple follow-the-leader
Medium Coordination
Variant:– Cooperative maze
solving
Beh
avio
rs
Towards Self-Sustainability
Goal is to develop a self-sustainable robot colony that can operate unassisted for long periods of time
Requirements– Autonomous recharging– Remote monitoring and
control
Fuel Cells
Obstacle
Warehouse
Charging Station
Factory
Sus
tain
abili
ty
Autonomous Recharging
Robots must request charging resources from a charging station
Additional sensor aids homing sequence Daughter-board controls battery charging process
Video?
Sus
tain
abili
ty
Bay Allocation
Maximize distance between occupied bays– Minimize likelihood of collisions
Can you really spend a whole slide explaining this? – perhaps if you make a very nice diagram
Sus
tain
abili
ty
ChargeRequest
ChargeAccept/Deny
Docking Bays
Wireless TokenRing
Charging Station
Bay Allocation Manager
Charge Board Dragonfly
I2C
Robot 0
ChargingAlgorithm
Scheduler:Task andCharging
FSMsBOM and Homing Signals
Robot 1
Robot 3Robot 2
Robot 4Autonomous Autonomous
Recharging SystemRecharging System
…
ChargeRequest
ChargeAccept/Deny
Docking Bays
Wireless TokenRing
Charging Station
Bay Allocation Manager
Charging Station
Bay Allocation Manager
Charge Board Dragonfly
I2C
Robot 0
ChargingAlgorithm
Scheduler:Task andCharging
FSMsBOM and Homing SignalsBOM and Homing Signals
Robot 1
Robot 3Robot 2
Robot 4
Robot 1
Robot 3Robot 2
Robot 4Autonomous Autonomous
Recharging SystemRecharging System
…
Sus
tain
abili
ty
Probably remove slide – diagram isn’t useful with time constraint
ColoNet
Towards Remote Monitoring
Autonomous recharging makes extended-duration tasks possible
Need tools to:– Monitor progress– Identify and resolve
problems Added bonus
– Useful debugging tool
User ServerTCP/IP
ServerWireless
R0
R1
Rn
Sus
tain
abili
ty
Web client
Future Work
Increase task complexity– Coordinated manipulation– Environment exploration
Increase trial duration– Days or weeks
Increase Colony scale
I don’t think you should put SLAM here, it’s very (very x 100) far away from working, and you don’t want to make promises you can’t keep
Fut
ure
Wor
k
Colony Members
Duncan Alexander Ben Berkowitz Austin Buchan Brian Coltin Felix Duvallet Siyuan Feng Aaron Johnson Jason Knichel James Kong
Christopher Mar Eugene Marinelli Brad Neuman Suresh Nidhiry Justin Scheiner Greg Tress Kevin Woo Cornell Wright
Prof. George Kantor
Questions?
www.robotcolony.org
Can we get an updated picture like this one?