BRIGE: Developing a model of collective behavior in bat swarms using acoustic communication and applications in robotic systems

技术描述：这项扩大工程参与研究启动资助 (BRIGE) 提供资金来研究受回声定位启发的主动传感多智能体系统中的协调。这项工作将使工程系统的设计成为可能，其中移动传感单元综合成对和广播通信，以实现尚未开发的群体级决策方案。蝙蝠利用回声定位来集群，因其独特的传感能力将被视为模型系统。该建模框架将包括主动传感的建设性和破坏性结果，这是文献中尚未解决的问题。研究问题将集中在多智能体系统模型的概念上，该模型使用主动感知来增强协调，从群体行为中获得能量优势，并避免同伴之间的破坏性干扰。将从基于代理的建模和基于网络的动态交互拓扑协调算法的角度探讨这种通信策略对信息共享的影响。该模型将通过对野生蝙蝠群的实验观察进行验证，并将结果转化为传感移动机器人的实验，该机器人旨在模仿和编码蝙蝠群底层的主动声学通信。更广泛的意义和重要性：由许多单元组成的系统——例如在大篷车中行驶的自动驾驶汽车、通过网络进行通信的计算机或在团队中监测洋流的水下滑翔机——在工程中普遍存在。因此，跨学科的工程师面临着探索如何协调这些系统中的单元以实现团队更大目标的挑战。在自然界中，表现出集体行为的动物群体（例如鱼群和鸟群）可以很好地执行这种大规模的协调任务。该 BRIGE 项目旨在对配备新型通信的单元系统中的协调进行建模，其灵感来自蝙蝠的回声定位，其中与环境的交互是使用主动传感而不是视觉等被动传感来实现的。我们将使用该模型的结果为专业机器人团队的算法提供信息，并将我们的结果与野生蝙蝠群进行比较。该 BRIGE 项目的结果将有可能通过捕捉这些独特动物群体的显着方面，带来用许多单元设计系统的新方法。 扩大工程中代表性不足群体的参与：研究工作将转化为扩大参与活动，向 K-12 学生介绍工程系统中无处不在的协调概念。 PI会创造一个女孩吗？由女本科生指导的机器人团队参加年度乐高机器人竞赛。将对参与者进行评估，以确定该活动是否与学术 STEM 表现的变化相关。当地的自然中心还将成为一个论坛，为公众设计和提供有关蝙蝠启发机器人的工程活动，该活动将利用该项目在工程和生物学界面的研究，吸引年轻参与者参与受生物学启发的设计。该项目将通过针对女孩的机器人活动和自然中心的项目来扩大代表性不足的群体对工程的参与，该项目旨在吸引对自然和保护感兴趣的儿童。这项研究是通过工程征集扩大参与研究启动赠款资助的，该赠款是工程教育和中心部门扩大工程参与计划的一部分。

Technical Description: This Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grant in Engineering (BRIGE) provides funding to study coordination in multi-agent systems with active sensing inspired by echolocation. This work will enable the design of engineering systems in which mobile sensing units synthesize pairwise and broadcast communication towards an untapped group-level decision-making scheme. Bats, which use echolocation to swarm, will be taken as a model system based on their unique sensing capabilities. This modeling framework will include constructive and destructive outcomes of active sensing, which is an untapped problem in the literature. Research questions will center on the notion of a multi-agent system model that uses active sensing to increase coordination, gains energetic advantages from group behavior, and avoids destructive interference between peers. The effect of such communication strategies on information sharing will be explored from the perspective of agent-based modeling and network-based algorithms for coordination over dynamic interaction topologies. The model will be validated using experimental observations on wild bat swarms and results will be translated to experiments on sensorized mobile robots designed to mimic and encode active acoustic communication underlying bat swarms. Broader Significance and Importance: Systems comprising many units- such as autonomous cars driving in a caravan, computers communicating over a network, or underwater gliders monitoring ocean currents in a team- are pervasive in engineering. As a result, engineers across disciplines are challenged to discover how to coordinate units in these systems to achieve the team?s larger goal. Such large-scale coordination tasks are well executed in nature by animal groups exhibiting collective behavior, such as fish schools and bird flocks. This BRIGE project aims to model coordination in a system of units equipped with a novel type of communication, inspired by echolocation in bats, where interaction with the environment is achieved using active sensing, rather than passive sensing such as vision. We will use the outcomes of this model to inform algorithms for teams of specialized robots and we will compare our results to wild bat swarms. The results of this BRIGE project will potentially lead to new ways to engineer systems with many units by capturing salient aspects of these unique animal groups.Broadening Participation of Underrepresented Groups in Engineering:Research efforts will be translated to broadening participation activities introducing K-12 students to the ubiquitous concept of coordination in engineered systems. The PI will create a girls? robotics team, mentored by female undergraduate students, to participate in annual LEGO robotics competitions. Participants will be assessed to determine if the activity correlates with changes in academic STEM performance. A local nature center will also be a forum to design and deliver engineering activities for the public on bat-inspired robotics, which will capitalize on the project?s research at the interface of engineering and biology to engage young participants in biologically-inspired design. The project will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering through both the robotics activity, which is aimed at girls, and through the program at the nature center, which seeks to engage children with interests in nature and conservation.This research has been funded through the Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering solicitation, which is part of the Broadening Participation in Engineering Program of the Engineering Education and Centers Division.