I/UCRC Collaborative Research: A Testing Methodology and Testbed for Miniature Robots

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Safety, Security and Rescue Research CenterProposal #1127947Proposal #1127938This proposal seeks funding for the Safety, Security and Rescue Research Center sites at the University of Denver and the University of Minnesota. Funding Requests for Fundamental Research are authorized by an NSF approved solicitation, NSF 10-601. The solicitation invites I/UCRCs to submit proposals for support of industry-defined fundamental research. Use of robots teams in extreme environments for wilderness search and rescue, urban search and rescue and surveillance are anticipated to require operation on land, water and under water. The proposed effort will explore means to maintain coordination of such multiple robot teams through environmental disturbances, communication lapses, and hardware and software failures. Moreover the work to establish resilient robot teams will enable the exploration of emergent behavior of the team that has the potential to arise due to these various faults. The effort will establish a real-time test bed based on the Aquapod robot and include development of test methodologies for single and multiple robots in various aqueous environments.The outcomes of the proposed work have the potential for significant impact in the areas of public safety and search and rescue across civilian and military application spaces. The work is supported by the Industry Advisory Board as well as individual industry members of the center and has the potential to extend the center?s portfolio through expansion into the areas of robot teams, their behavior and fault tolerant control. The impact of the work has the potential to extend beyond the center by virtue of the testing methodology to be developed for robot teams. The center will involve graduate students and undergraduates in the work and incorporate the results in existing coursework in robotics and software systems engineering.