Workshop: Frontiers of Real-World Multi-Robot Systems: Challenges and Opportunities; Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Spring 2011

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The purpose of this project is to organize a two-day workshop on multi-robot systems that addresses the practical aspects and issues involved in real-world implementation of these systems. The field of multi-robot systems has seen a tremendous analytical progress that has included development of mathematical and algorithmic tools to enable information processing, control, and communication. These systems have tremendous potential for applications in dynamic and uncertain conditions that characterize a wide range of civilian and military applications such as disaster management, large-scale monitoring and surveillance, and space exploration. Before these systems can be operational in real-world environments, not only a number of research issues have to be resolved but also the theories generated from research have to be verified, validated, and tested by extensive experimentation and field implementation. The workshop focuses on five issues central to the experimental and real-world implementation aspects of multi-agent robotics that includes: i) multi-robot hardware; ii) software integration; iii) communication; iv) sensing; and v) simulation environments. The main objectives of the workshop include determining strategic research directions, developing action plans, and foment interdisciplinary collaborations to help overcome the shortcomings prevalent in the current systems. The workshop brings together researchers working on the multi-disciplinary aspects of the swarm robotics such as systems and controls, communication, sensor data processing and fusion, and development of sensors. In addition to researchers working in the engineering disciplines, researchers from several other disciplines such as biology, physics, and mathematics will be invited to discuss various aspects of this research. Such a forum enables the cross-fertilization of ideas from multiple scientific domains and promotes interdisciplinary research. This project enables and supports participation of students, especially those at undergraduate levels and from underrepresented groups. Elaborate arrangements are made to widely disseminate the presentations, discussions, and findings from this workshop to broader research community.