MRI:Acquisition of an Experimental Testbed for Research and Teaching in Mobile Collaborative Agents

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This work, supporting one large project on mobile, collaborative, agent-based computing, builds testbeds for a variety of research activities centered around sensor networks, and ties together robotics, wireless sensor networks, and distributed computing. The project, composed of smaller projects on distributed robotics and computer vision, distributed sensor networks, and distributed agent computing, enables both an increase in simulation capability and experimental work to validate these simulations. The robotics and vision project seeks to enable new modes of communication between distributed agents, new techniques for context-aware recognition of people and events, and scalable means for simulating multi-agent learning. The mobile ad-hoc/sensor network project examines data fusion and in-network processing of sensor information with an application of target tracking and surveillance using heterogeneous sensors, exploring security issues related to data injection attacks in the networks (LEAP) and energy management issues related to employing different techniques for power saving. Additionally, the research involves a project on distributed, mobile agent software. The research activities that will benefit from the proposed infrastructure include projects on Distributed robotics involving teams of heterogeneous agents Distributed visual observers, Swarm agents, Multiagent learning, Security protocols for wireless sensor networks, Distributed surveillance using mobile robots and sensor networks, Light-weight agent architectures, Agent-based multicasting for distributed virtual environments, and Dynamic reconfiguration and middleware for mobile software agents.Broader Impact: The infrastructure supports undergraduate and graduate courses on robotics, sensor networks, computer vision, and multi-agent technology, helping spawn student learning and interest in these areas of technology. The results and the software developed will be disseminated to the wider community. Fourteen faculty members will contribute to enhance collaborations with other institutions to address critical problems such as homeland security, healthcare, home and factory automation, disaster recovery, and environmental and infrastructure monitoring.