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

技术说明：这个扩大参与工程研究启动补助金（BRIGE）提供资金，以研究多智能体系统中的协调与回声定位启发的主动传感。这项工作将使工程系统的设计，其中移动的传感单元合成成对和广播通信对一个未开发的组级决策方案。蝙蝠，使用回声定位群集，将作为一个模型系统的基础上，他们独特的传感能力。这个建模框架将包括积极的传感，这是一个尚未开发的问题，在文献中的建设性和破坏性的结果。研究问题将集中在多代理系统模型的概念上，该模型使用主动感知来增加协调，从群体行为中获得能量优势，并避免对等体之间的破坏性干扰。这种通信策略的信息共享的效果将探讨从基于代理的建模和基于网络的算法的角度协调动态交互拓扑结构。该模型将使用野生蝙蝠群的实验观察进行验证，结果将转化为传感器移动的机器人的实验，旨在模仿和编码蝙蝠群下的主动声学通信。更广泛的意义和重要性：由许多单元组成的系统-例如在大篷车中驾驶的自动汽车，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-在工程中无处不在。因此，跨学科的工程师面临的挑战是，如何协调这些系统中的单元，以实现团队？更大的目标。这种大规模的协调任务在自然界中由表现出集体行为的动物群体（如鱼群和鸟群）很好地执行。这个BRIGE项目旨在模拟配备了新型通信的单元系统中的协调，灵感来自蝙蝠的回声定位，其中与环境的互动是使用主动传感实现的，而不是被动传感，如视觉。我们将使用这个模型的结果来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。这个BRIGE项目的结果将可能导致新的方法来工程系统与许多单位通过捕捉这些独特的动物groups.Broadening参与不足的群体在工程：研究工作将转化为扩大参与活动介绍K-12学生无处不在的概念协调工程系统的突出方面。私家侦探会创造一个女孩？在女本科生的指导下，参加一年一度的乐高机器人竞赛。参与者将被评估，以确定活动是否与学术STEM表现的变化相关。当地的一个自然中心也将成为一个论坛，为公众设计和提供蝙蝠启发的机器人工程活动，这将利用该项目？在工程学和生物学的接口的研究，吸引年轻的参与者在生物启发的设计。该项目将通过针对女孩的机器人活动和旨在吸引对自然和保护感兴趣的儿童的自然中心项目，扩大代表性不足的群体对工程的参与。这项研究已通过工程学广泛参与研究启动赠款征集获得资助，这是工程教育和中心部工程项目的一部分。

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.