1,721,003 research outputs found
An experimental study of distributed robot coordination
No full textCoordinating the path of multiple robots along assigned paths is a computationally hard problem with great potential for applications. We here provide a detailed experimental study of a randomized algorithm for scheduling priorities that we have developed, and also compare it with exact and approximated solutions. It turns out that for problems of reasonable size our algorithm exhibits an appealing compromise between speed and quality
Online estimation of covariance parameters using extended Kalman filtering and application to robot localization
No full textA performance comparison of three algorithms for proximity queries relative to convex polyhedra
No full textThis paper presents a comparative analysis relative to the experimental performances of an asymptotically fast and incremental algorithm, recently developed to compute collision translations for pairs of convex polyhedra. The algorithm may be worth considering because it solves a proximity problem which is less widely addressed than distance, as well as because of its peculiar computation strategy, well suited to work without initialization, but also endowed with an inherently embedded mechanism to exploit spatial coherence. Numerical data characterizing the behavior of the algorithm with respect to the complexity of the polyhedra have already been discussed elsewhere, thus here the main focus is on contrasting its performances with those of two popular algorithms designed to compute distances between polyhedra. Although the considered "yardsticks" answer different proximity queries, and although one of the techniques is meant to deal with general polyhedra, the results presented in this paper should help to assess the efficacy and potential of the approach under analysis. All the three algorithms, indeed, share the same kind of application context; moreover, on the basis of the asymptotic bounds discussed in the literature, distances and collision translations require similar computational efforts. A thorough comparison of the reported query times and, more significantly, of the corresponding trends seems to show that the behavior of the novel algorithm is quite interesting, especially when used without initialization, what should encourage further work on its peculiar approac
The challenge of motion planning for soccer playing humanoid robots
No full textMotion planning for humanoids faces several challenging issues: high dimensionality of the configuration space, necessity to address balance constraints in single and double support mode, higher levels of planning for coordination of different skills, etc. While the above challenges hold for any humanoid robot, the soccer scenario adds difficulties rarely addressed in humanoid motion planning research, as for example: dynamic environments with active opponents, the requirement to perform short- and long-term plans for performing soccer-relevant actions, and the necessity to plan movements purposely terminating with a collision with the ball. These aspects open a completely new scenario for researchers. This paper surveys state-of-the-art research in motion planning for humanoid robots with a focus on outlining connections, differences, and identifying the key aspects that ought to be addressed when developing effective humanoid soccer players
An experimental study of distributed robot coordination
No full textCoordinating the path of multiple robots along assigned paths is a difficult problem (NP-Hard) with great potential for applications. We here provide a detailed study of a randomized algorithm for scheduling priorities we have developed, also comparing it with an exact approach. It turns out that for problems of reasonable size our approach does not perform significantly worse than the optimal one, while being much faster
Deploying teams of heterogeneous UAVs in cooperative two-level surveillance missions
No full textWe consider the problem of providing surveillance to a grid area using multiple heterogeneous UAVs, named sentinels and searchers, with complementary sensing and actuation capabilities. We consider probabilistic attacks and we analyze the expected performance with respect to the team deployment. We then introduce the problem of finding minmax deployments that result in the most desirable worst case performance caused by an attack. We present an algorithm to compute deployments while trading off solution's quality and computational effort and we qualitatively and quantitatively analyze it
Online Patrolling Using Hierarchical Spatial Representations
Full text linkAbstract — Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be an ef-fective technology for security applications involving patrolling and search missions. Defining online patrolling strategies for UAVs presents challenges related both to classical patrolling, as periodic monitoring of the environment, and to search, as accurate localization and identification of the mission-related activities. In this paper, we deal with this problem considering probabilistic intrusions and a variable resolution sensing model that naturally applies to the domain of UAVs. We present three online single–robot patrolling strategies exploiting a variable resolution paradigm to represent the environment that has recently shown promising results for search problems. The approach uses a hierarchical representation based on probabilistic quadtrees that allows UAVs to tradeoff sensing accuracy with sensing area. The model is extended by adding stochastic arrivals of intruders in space and time. Obtained results validate this approach for online patrolling against approaches based on uniform grids. I
The unconstrained and inequality constrained moving horizon approach to robot localization
No full textOnline estimation of variance parameters: experimental results with applications to localization
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