Multi-robot informed path planning under communication constraints
Advisor Information
Prithviraj Dasgupta
Location
Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
4-3-2016 10:45 AM
End Date
4-3-2016 12:15 PM
Abstract
Autonomous exploration using multiple robots is a rapidly evolving technology that can reduce the dangers to humans while exploring unstructured environments such as extraterrestrial planetary surfaces, or, building structures following a disaster scene. In both cases, the environment is initially unknown, and likely dangerous for humans to enter and maneuver within. Robots can explore and provide critical information back to the human operators, allowing for more specialized deployments of human teams, reducing the risk those teams are put into. In this work, we propose a preliminary approach to exploration of unknown and unstructured environments using multiple robots in communication constrained environments. In our proposed approach, we plan to use Gaussian Processes to model the dynamics of the information gathered by the robots and the likelihood of communication. Based on these two Gaussian Processes, we will select candidate points and go to the point that best balances the objectives of information gain and communication of information to a base station, with a bias towards communications the longer the robot goes without communicating samples back to the base station. We plan to evaluate this approach in simulation and on physical robots available in the CMANTIC Robotics Lab.
Multi-robot informed path planning under communication constraints
Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library
Autonomous exploration using multiple robots is a rapidly evolving technology that can reduce the dangers to humans while exploring unstructured environments such as extraterrestrial planetary surfaces, or, building structures following a disaster scene. In both cases, the environment is initially unknown, and likely dangerous for humans to enter and maneuver within. Robots can explore and provide critical information back to the human operators, allowing for more specialized deployments of human teams, reducing the risk those teams are put into. In this work, we propose a preliminary approach to exploration of unknown and unstructured environments using multiple robots in communication constrained environments. In our proposed approach, we plan to use Gaussian Processes to model the dynamics of the information gathered by the robots and the likelihood of communication. Based on these two Gaussian Processes, we will select candidate points and go to the point that best balances the objectives of information gain and communication of information to a base station, with a bias towards communications the longer the robot goes without communicating samples back to the base station. We plan to evaluate this approach in simulation and on physical robots available in the CMANTIC Robotics Lab.