Collaborative Research: CCRI:NEW: Research Infrastructure for Real-Time Computer Vision and Decision Making via Mobile Robots

该项目将为自主移动机器人(空中和地面)的计算机视觉和实时控制创建一个研究基础设施。基础设施包括四个完整的组成部分：(1)装饰成微型城市的普渡实验室。(2)反映物理实验室的模拟器。(3)具有与模拟器相同接口的可编程空中机器人。(4)用于人工智能、计算机视觉、机器人控制研究的样本解决方案，用于评估和比较。这一基础设施将以多种方式提供给研究界：(1)用户可以在安全的虚拟环境中使用模拟器来评估他们的解决方案。(2)用户可以上传他们的控制程序，这个团队将在普渡的实验室内发射机器人。用户可以使用实验室中已经部署的高速摄像头远程观察机器人。(3)用户可以携带自己的机器人到实验室进行实验。(4)该项目将为研究人员创造竞赛，以展示他们在模拟紧急情况和救援场景中使用自主移动机器人的解决方案。比赛将使用微型建筑和人，让机器人识别和计算物体(如人数、车辆和房屋的数量)，评估情况(如倒塌的桥梁数量)，同时避开障碍物。这些基础设施将用于调查广泛的研究课题，包括(1)实时计算机视觉和控制。经过装饰的实验室将允许研究人员在三维环境中使用主动计算机视觉、导航和语义分割来评估他们的实时视觉和控制方法的解决方案。(2)机器人舰队的仿真。用户可以在部署前在安全的虚拟环境中评估和改进他们的方法。(3)该基础设施将集成虚拟和物理环境，以便在模拟器中运行的解决方案可以直接移植到物理机器人进行实验。(4)嵌入式系统上的碰撞避免、多机器人协作、应急响应、计算机安全和高效的机器学习。(5)农业、城市规划、应急处置和民用建筑检查。这个项目将建设STEM人才，因为自主机器人和视觉数据自然对普通公众有吸引力。有了模拟器，所有级别的学生都可以参与，而不需要购买物理机器人的成本。这一研究基础设施将减少创新的障碍。这一基础设施还将鼓励机器学习方面的创新，这些创新在能源方面是有效的，可以移植到资源受限的嵌入式系统，如空中机器人。该项目也将吸引包括K-12学生在内的更广泛的受众，因为上面描述了许多申请。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will create a research infrastructure for computer vision and real-time control of autonomous mobile robots (both aerial and ground). The infrastructure includes four integrated components: (1) A Purdue laboratory decorated as miniature cities. (2) Simulators that reflect the physical laboratory. (3) Programmable aerial robots with the same interface as the simulators. (4) Sample solutions for research on artificial intelligence, computer vision, and robot control for evaluation and comparison. This infrastructure will be available to the research community in multiple ways: (1) Users can evaluate their solutions with the simulators in a safe virtual environment. (2) Users can upload their control programs and this team will launch the robots inside Purdue's laboratory. Users can observe the robots remotely using the high-speed cameras already deployed in the laboratory. (3) Users can bring their own robots to the laboratory and conduct experiments. (4) This project will create competitions for researchers to demonstrate their solutions using autonomous mobile robots in simulated emergency and rescue scenarios. The competitions will use miniature buildings and people for the robots to recognize and count objects (such as number of people, vehicles, and houses), assess situations (such as the number of collapsed bridges), while avoiding obstacles.This infrastructure will be available for investigating a wide range of research topics, including (1) real-time computer vision and control. The decorated laboratory will allow researchers to evaluate their solutions for real-time vision and control methods using active computer vision, navigation, and semantic segmentation in a three-dimensional environment. (2) simulation of robot fleets. Users can evaluate and improve their methods in a safe virtual environment before deployment. (3) This infrastructure will integrate virtual and physical environments so that solutions running in the simulators can be ported directly to the physical robots for experiments. (4) collision avoidance, multi-robot coordination, emergency response, computer security, and efficient machine learning on embedded systems. (5) agriculture, city planning, emergency response, and inspection of civil structures. This project will build STEM talents because autonomous robots and visual data are naturally appealing to the general public. With the simulators, students at all levels can participate without the cost of purchasing physical robots. This research infrastructure will reduce the barriers to innovations. This infrastructure will also encourage innovations in machine learning that are efficient in energy and can be ported to resource constrained embedded systems such as aerial robots. The project will engage a broader audience including K-12 students as well because of the many applications described above.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.