Engineering Research Equipment Grant: A Range Finder and Manipulator for Empirical Verification of Sensor-Based Decision Making

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The objective of this research equipment effort is to support a broad, aggressive research program in sensor-based robotics and automation. Purchase of a laser range scanner and a robot arm will support several research projects, including: sensor data fusion, object recognition, sensor-based reasoning in controlled and uncontrolled environments, and combined manipulation and mobility. This research methodology is firmly grounded in theory. Results from elimination theory provide a general basis for relating sensor observations to geometric models of curved objects. Constraint solving systems are used to recover the parameters of these and other parametric models. Decision theory provides a framework for developing task-directed sensor control and data processing algorithms. The solution techniques advance two computational models, specifically symbolic equation rewriting and interval-based constraint solving. To validate these theoretical advances, they must be tested under realistic conditions. Range sensing, providing a direct source of real-world geometry, and a robot arm, providing sensor mobility and object manipulation capabilities, will be employed to support the endeavors. This equipment will provide the nucleus of a laboratory devoted to the construction of integrated automated systems with the potential for a broad range of future applications.