2417633
Closed loop motion plans for mobile robots
We discuss a game theoretic approach to the design of closed loop feedback laws to solve sensor based motion planning problems for mobile robots. Our approach provides a framework for dealing with environmental uncertainty, and, by explicitly accounting for the sensor dynamics, a formal way of combining exploratory and goal directed motions. We focus on methods of devising optimal feedback laws, using finite dimensional parametrizations, under the worst case uncertainty for several illustrative examples.
15738427
A potential field based approach to multi-robot manipulation
We describe a framework for controlling and coordinating a group of robots for cooperative manipulation tasks. The framework enables a decentralized approach to planning and control. It allows the robots to approach the object, organize themselves into a formation that will trap the object, and then transport the object to the desired destination. Our controllers and planners are derived from simple potential fields and the hierarchical composition of potential fields. We show how these potential field based controllers and planners benefit complex group interactions, specifically for manipulating and transporting objects in the plane. Theoretically, we show how we can derive results on formation stability with potential field based controllers in many cases. Simulation results demonstrate successful application to a wide range of examples without showing sensitivity to parameters. Because the framework is decentralized at both trajectory generation level and the estimation and control agent level, our framework can potentially scale to groups of tens and hundreds of robots.
6879835
Calibrating an air-ground control system from motion correspondences
In this paper we consider the problem of controlling the motion of a vehicle moving on a ground plane based on aerial imagery. In the course of this work we propose a novel analysis of the relationship between the velocity of the vehicle on the ground plane and the velocity of its projection in the image. We show that this relationship provides information about a subset of the parameters of the homography relating the ground plane to the aerial image plane and describe how we can recover this relationship from available measurements.
5542960
Metrics for analysis and optimization of grasps and fixtures
We develop two quality measures for the analysis and optimization of grasps and fixtures. The first metric is a measure of stability and is obtained by analyzing the effect of small perturbations in the position of the grasped object or small disturbance forces on the grasped object The second metric is a measure of robustness to errors in the positions of the fixture elements. In addition, we explore the effect that the stiffness of the fixture elements has on these two quality measures and propose a design optimization approach to maximize stability and robustness to errors.
29516211
Control of Contact Interactions with Acatastatic Nonholonomic Constraints
A robot arm performs many tasks by interacting with objects or other robots in the environment. It is important for the robot arm to be able to exhibit controlled interactions with the objects and other robots. The contact motion between the robot arm and an object can be rolling, sliding, or separation. In this article, we address the problem of maintaining rolling contact between the robot arm and an external moving object. We assume that a nominal model of the motion of the moving object is available. The dynamic system that characterizes the motion of the robot arm and the moving object in this case is acatastatic and nonholonomic. We have designed a nonlinear feedback for the control of such a system that successfully maintains rolling contact. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system.
7023425
A Paradigm for Dynamic Coordination of Multiple Robots
In this paper, we present a paradigm for coordinating multiple robots in the execution of cooperative tasks. The basic idea in the paper is to assign to each robot in the team, a role that determines its actions during the cooperation. The robots dynamically assume and exchange roles in a synchronized manner in order to perform the task successfully, adapting to unexpected events in the environment. We model this mechanism using a hybrid systems framework and apply it in different cooperative tasks: cooperative manipulation and cooperative search and transportation. Simulations and real experiments demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed paradigm are presented.
2804750
A Timeout-Based Mobile Transaction Commitment Protocol
We investigate transaction commit in Mobile Database Systems (MDS) and develop a commitment protocol based on "timeout" approach. Timeout approach is universally used to reach a decision as a last option in all message oriented systems. With this approach we have minimized the use of wireless message cost in commiting transactions.
41766531
High Performance Data Mining
The current decade has seen an explosive growth in database technology and the amount of data collected. This has created an unprecedented opportunity for ”data mining,” which is a process of efficient supervised or unsupervised discovery of interesting information hidden in the data. The focus of this symposium is to bring together experts from the academia and the industry, including reseachers and practitioners, to discuss issues in this important area. Owing to the huge size of data and computation involved in data mining algorithms, parallel processing is often considered an essential component for a successful data mining solution - which will be a special emphasis of the symposium. Talks in this mini-symposium will cover both the current state-of the-practice as well as state-of-the-research in data mining. A highlight of the symposium is a panel discussion on the theory and practice of data mining.
10015251
Repartitioning of Adaptive Meshes: Experiments with Multilevel Diffusion
For a large class of irregular grid applications, the structure of the mesh changes from one phase of the computation to the next. Eventually, as the graph evolves, the adapted mesh has to be repartitioned to ensure good load balance. If this new graph is partitioned from scratch, it will lead to an excessive migration of data among processors. In this paper, we present a new scheme for computing repartitionings of adaptively refined meshes. This scheme performs diffusion of vertices in a multilevel framework and minimizes vertex movement without significantly compromising the edge-cut.
38254367
Parallel formulations of decision-tree classification algorithms
Classification decision tree algorithms are used extensively for data mining in many domains such as retail target marketing, fraud detection, etc. Highly parallel algorithms for constructing classification decision trees are desirable for dealing with large data sets in reasonable amount of time. Algorithms for building classification decision trees have a natural concurrency, but are difficult to parallelize due to the inherent dynamic nature of the computation. We present parallel formulations of classification decision tree learning algorithm based on induction. We describe two basic parallel formulations. One is based on Synchronous Tree Construction Approach and the other is based on Partitioned Tree Construction Approach. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using these methods and propose a hybrid method that employs the good features of these methods. Experimental results on an IBM SP-2 demonstrate excellent speedups and scalability.
35078097
An adaptive location management algorithm for mobile computing
In mobile computing mobile hosts or mobile units move randomly from one place to another within a well-defined geographical area. This requires some mechanism for identifying the exact location of a mobile host. Such mechanisms are usually referred to as location management and is one of the essential components for supporting mobility. In the past a number of efficient location management schemes have been suggested but they lack adaptability. We believe that an adaptable location management scheme is more desirable because of frequent change in the location of mobile hosts. In this paper, we report a location management algorithm, which adapts to the constant changing scenario. Our algorithm makes use of some of the concepts of location management schemes proposed in the past.