Multi-robot systems : from swarms to intelligent automata : proceedings from the 2002 NRL workshop on multi-robot systems

In March 2002, the Naval Research Laboratory brought together leading researchers and government sponsors for a three-day workshop in Washington, D.C. on Multi-Robot Systems. The workshop began with presentations by various government program managers describing application areas and programs with an interest in multi­ robot systems. Government representatives were on hand from the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force, the Army Research Lab, the National Aeronau­ tics and Space Administration, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Top researchers then presented their current activities in the areas of multi­ robot systems and human-robot interaction. The first two days of the workshop of1ocalizatio~. concentrated on multi-robot control issues, including the topics mapping, and navigation; distributed surveillance; manipulation; coordination and formations; and sensors and hardware. The third day was focused on hu­ man interactions with multi-robot teams. All presentations were given in a single-track workshop format. This proceedings documents the work presented by these researchers at the workshop. The invited presentations were followed by panel discussions, in which all participants interacted to highlight the challenges of this field and to develop possible solutions. In addition to the invited research talks, students were given an opportunity to present their work at poster sessions. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 On the Positional Uncertainty of Multi-Robot Cooperative Localization....Pages 3-10 A Multi-Agent System for Multi-Robot Mapping and Exploration....Pages 11-19 Distributed Heterogeneous Sensing for Outdoor Multi-Robot Localization, Mapping, and Path Planning....Pages 21-30 Mission-Relevant Collaborative Observation and Localization....Pages 31-40 Deployment and Localization for Mobile Robot Teams....Pages 41-51 Multiple Autonomous Robots for UXO Clearance, the Basic UXO Gathering System (Bugs) Project....Pages 53-61 Front Matter....Pages 63-63 Programming and Controlling the Operations of a Team of Miniature Robots....Pages 65-72 Autonomous Flying Vehicle Research at the University of Southern California....Pages 73-80 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 Distributed Manipulation of Multiple Objects Using Ropes....Pages 83-91 A Distributed Multi-Robot System for Cooperative Manipulation....Pages 93-100 Front Matter....Pages 101-101 A Layered Architecture for Coordination of Mobile Robots....Pages 103-112 Stability Analysis of Decentralized Cooperative Controls....Pages 113-122 Snow White and the 700 Dwarves....Pages 123-130 Front Matter....Pages 131-131 Goats: Multi-Platform Sonar Concept for Coastal Mine Countermeasures....Pages 133-140 Design of the UMN Multi-Robot System....Pages 141-148 Simulating Self-Organization with the Digital Hormone Model....Pages 149-157 Front Matter....Pages 159-159 Architecting a Simulation and Development Environment for Multi-Robot Teams....Pages 161-168 Robot Soccer: A Multi-Robot Challenge....Pages 169-174 Front Matter....Pages 175-175 Human-Robot Interactions: Creating Synergistic Cyber Forces....Pages 177-184 Communicating with Teams of Cooperative Robots....Pages 185-193 Front Matter....Pages 175-175 Robot as Partner: Vehicle Teleoperation with Collaborative Control....Pages 195-202 Adaptive Multi-Robot, Multi-Operator Work Systems....Pages 203-211 User Interaction with Multi-Robot Systems....Pages 213-220 Human-Robot Interactions in Robot-Assisted Urban Search and Rescue....Pages 221-221 Usability Issues for Designing Multi-Robot Missions....Pages 223-223 Perception-Based Navigation for Mobile Robots....Pages 225-234 Back Matter....Pages 235-235 This proceedings volume documents recent cutting-edge developments in multi-robot systems research. This volume is the result of a workshop on Multi-Robot Systems that was held in March 2002 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. This workshop was held as part of the NATO working group IST-032/RTG-014 on Multi-Robot Systems and preceded this group's formal meeting. This workshop brought together top researchers working in areas relevant to designing teams of autonomous vehicles, including robots and unmanned ground, air, surface, and undersea vehicles. The workshop focused on the challenging issues of team architectures, vehicle learning and adaptation, heterogeneous group control and cooperation, task selection, dynamic autonomy, mixed initiative, and human and robot team interaction