CISE Research Resources: Teams of Miniature Mobile Robots

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EIA-0224363Nikolaos PapanikolopoulosDaniel L. Boley; William K. Durfeet; Maria L. Gini; Bradley J. NelsonUniversity of Minnesota-Twin CitiesCISE RR (Collaborative): Teams of Miniature Mobile RobotsThis project, redesigning and manufacturing a team of Scout-Ranger robots, improvises on the current scout design through novel design schemes, software development, sensory fabrication, and processing sensory data in real time. The research extends work based on a previous generation of Scouts. The institution developed a heterogeneous robotic team emphasizing the "Scout" robot, launched and controlled by a larger platform, the "Ranger." After deployment, Scouts have a unique combination of mobility modes including rolling and hopping, multiple sensing capabilities for navigation (e.g., cameras, microphones), full communications for data and instructions (controlled by cellular phones), and onboard computational resources. Their functionality is increased by actuated wheels and miniature grappling hooks and can serve applications such as reconnaissance, earthquake rescue operations, homeland security space exploration, fire rescue missions, hostage release operations, etc. Their design requires a compromise in power, sensor types, locomotion, and size. However, rather than concentrating on size, this work focuses primarily on communications, sensor fabrication, and sensor placement. Solutions to research problems are sought in areas of miniature-robot design, communication for distributed robotics (especially in low-bandwidth situations), and resource allocation for distributed robotics. Specifically:1. Designs of miniature robots: modifying original scout design, giving special care to image-processing2. Software support for Robot Teams: sharing resources leading to decision making and planning3. Tradeoffs between sharing communication channels and performance in motion detection4. Sensor fabrication in the micro fabrication lab5. Analysis of sensory data (images) of the team of robots; seeking optical positioning of the sensor to maximize coverage/redundancy6. Analysis of traffic patterns (of humans) in a building7. Detection of anomalies on those patterns, or detection of unusual situations (i.e. smoke): using method of Principal Direction Divisive Partitioning8. Innovative uses of Scouts: tele-rehabilitation, dynamic hopping devices, etc.The educational plan includes the incorporation and mentoring of women and minority students. The robots will be used not only in Computer Vision and Robotics classes, also, in Algorithms, Data Structures, Operating Systems, and Artificial Intelligence. Outreach activities, proposed for K-12, along with public outreach complement the research agendas.