CPS: Breakthrough: Collaborative Research: Cyber-Physical Manipulation (CPM): Locating, Manipulating, and Retrieving Large Objects with Large Populations of Robots

CPS：突破：协作研究：网络物理操纵（CPM）：用大量机器人定位、操纵和检索大型物体

• 批准号: 1330085
• 负责人: James McLurkin
• 金额: $ 26.31万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-10-01 至 2016-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1330085&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CPS; Breakthrough; Collaborative; Research; Cyber

This project develops the theory and technology for a new frontier in cyber-physical systems: cyber-physical manipulation. The goal of cyber-physical manipulation is to enable groups of hundreds or thousands of individual robotic agents to collaboratively explore an environment, manipulate objects in that environment, and transport those objects to desired locations. The project embraces realistic assumptions about the communication, computation, and sensing capabilities of simple individual robots, leading to algorithmic solutions that intrinsically leverage population size in favor of complex agents. Cyber-physical solutions for locating, grasping, and characterizing objects require tools based on distributed computational geometry, while the tasks of planning a path, initiating motion, and controlling the trajectory require tools from decentralized control and consensus. The project lays the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of cyber-physical manipulation, and proves the feasibility of the concept experimentally in hardware tests with up to 100 individual robots. The project uses the problem of manipulation as a stage on which to explore the deeper cyber-physical issue of information asymmetry; the difference in the state of the world as perceived by different agents in the system due to differences in their history of observations, and limitations in their communication capabilities.The object retrieval problem studied in this project is an elemental building block for enabling more complex cyber-physical manipulation tasks. It provides crucial algorithmic components for numerous applications of broad societal benefit, including automated construction (in which hundreds or thousands of robots fabricate large, complex structures), autonomous emergency response (in which large teams of robots find and retrieve incapacitated human survivors after a disaster), and automated environmental cleanup (in which robots secure a dangerous environment by removing debris or hazardous substances). Furthermore, distributed algorithms for multi-agent systems are of broad scientific relevance beyond the realm of cyberphysical systems. The natural world is, in its algorithmic essence, decentralized at many levels. Hence, any advancement in the understanding of how groups of individual agents collaborate to accomplish a coherent task will have broad scientific ramifications. The project has a robust educational and outreach program. One aspect is a hands-on curriculum for robotics outreach activities, called the 'Cyber-Physical Manipulation Lab.' Using a custom-designed robot platform, this educational module introduces the theory and practice of cyber-physical systems to young students to attract them to STEM subject areas at an early age. Results of the project are also incorporated into several graduate and undergraduate level courses at Rice University and Boston University.

该项目为网络物理系统的一个新的前沿领域开发了理论和技术：网络物理操纵。网络物理操纵的目标是使成百上千个单独的机器人代理能够协作地探索环境，操纵该环境中的对象，并将这些对象传输到所需的位置。该项目包含了关于简单单个机器人的通信、计算和传感能力的现实假设，导致了内在地利用种群大小支持复杂代理的算法解决方案。定位、抓取和表征对象的计算机物理解决方案需要基于分布式计算几何的工具，而规划路径、启动运动和控制轨迹的任务需要分散控制和协商一致的工具。该项目为计算机物理操作奠定了理论和算法基础，并在多达100个机器人的硬件测试中证明了这一概念的可行性。该项目将操纵问题作为一个阶段，以探索更深层次的信息不对称的网络物理问题；系统中不同主体由于观察历史的不同而感知的世界状态的差异，以及他们通信能力的限制。本项目研究的对象检索问题是实现更复杂的网络物理操纵任务的基本构件。它为许多具有广泛社会效益的应用提供了关键的算法组件，包括自动化建筑(数百或数千个机器人建造大型复杂结构)、自主应急响应(大型机器人团队在灾难发生后发现并找回丧失能力的人类幸存者)以及自动环境清理(机器人通过清除碎片或危险物质来保护危险环境)。此外，多智能体系统的分布式算法在网络物理系统领域之外具有广泛的科学意义。自然界在其算法本质上是在许多层面上分散的。因此，在理解一组单独的代理人如何合作完成一项连贯的任务方面的任何进展都将产生广泛的科学影响。该项目有一个强有力的教育和推广计划。其中一个方面是机器人技术推广活动的实践课程，该课程被称为“网络物理操作实验室”。该教学单元使用定制的机器人平台，向年轻学生介绍网络物理系统的理论和实践，以吸引他们在很小的时候就进入STEM学科领域。该项目的成果也被纳入了莱斯大学和波士顿大学的几门研究生和本科生课程。