MARS 2020 TEAMS Demonstrations

(Brochure [9.8 Mb] here)

 

 

The Team

 

Vijay Kumar and C. J. Taylor, University of Pennsylvania

Ron Arkin and Tucker Balch, Georgia Tech

Gaurav Sukhatme and Maja Mataric, USC

Jason Redi, BBN Technologies

Douglas MacKenzie, Mobile Intelligence Inc.

 

 

The Research

 

Our project has developed the infrastructure, algorithms and experimental testbeds for (a) supporting communication via active, mobile nodes during network-centric warfare; and (b) integration of multiple, heterogeneous sensor views for situational awareness. The main innovative ideas in our work include:

 

1.     A comprehensive model and framework integrating communications, perception, and execution, which allow a small team of robots to behave as a seamless, distributed robot whose task is to provide situational awareness and to facilitate the war fighterÕs mission execution.

2.     The automated acquisition of perceptual information for situational awareness, the integration of perceptual models and information from heterogeneous robots and sensors, and their synthesis into a coherent picture for enhanced situational awareness and presentation to a human user.

3.     A suite of new reactive group behaviors for a team of air and ground based robots that are communications sensitive, ensuring reliable communications through coordinated motion consistent with the overall mission's objectives.

4.     A new paradigm and algorithms for team planning mechanisms in support of air and ground operations geared towards maximizing communications capabilities in adverse conditions while on the move.

5.     A new framework for ad hoc networking in which robots use sensory information and relative position information to adapt network topology to the constraints of the task.

6.     New, fully integrated mission specification capabilities for parsing the tasks of overall mission objectives and mapping them onto a heterogeneous group of robotic platforms.

 

The Demonstrations

 

We have planned an integrated demonstration involving heterogeneous aerial and ground robots which will bring together four institutions with over 20 different robotic assets demonstrating communication sensitive behaviors for situational awareness operating at the Fort Benning MOUT site. In addition, we have planned seven vignettes:

1.    Mission planning, verification and validation;

2.    Situational awareness with distributed, heterogeneous sensors;

3.    Three-dimensional mapping and autonomous navigation;

4.    Automated radio signal strength mapping in urban environments;

5.    Cooperative target search, identification, and localization;

6.    Mission execution while maintaining communication constraints; and

7.    Air ground coordination in urban canyons.

 

Location

 

McKenna MOUT site, Fort Benning, Columbus, GA

 

How to get to FortBenning?

 

See http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~kumar/mars2020/Maps.pptfordirections.

It is possible to arrange a day trip from the Washington DC area to Ft. Benning. While flights to Columbus, the nearest airport, are not as frequent, the site is only a 2 hour drive from Atlanta.

 

 

Tentative Agenda

 

10:00-10:15      Introduction

Overview

 

10:15-11:45          Integrated Demonstration

 

11:45-1:00            Lunch

                           Overview of Vignettes

 

1:00-3:00              Demonstrations: Vignettes

3:00-3:30              Wrap-up

 

 

Papers

 

1. L. Chaimowicz, A. Cowley, D. Gomez-Ibanez, B. Grocholsky, M. A. Hsieh, H. Hsu, J. F. Keller, V. Kumar, R. Swaminathan, and C. J. Taylor, Deploying Air-Ground Multirobot Teams in Urban Environments, 2005 Multirobot Workshop, Washington DC (pdf).

 

2. B. Grocholsky, S. Bayraktar, V. Kumar, C. J. Taylor, and G. Pappas, Synergies in Feature Localization by Air-Ground Robot Teams, Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, 2004 (pdf).

 

3. L. Chaimowicz, B. Grocholsky, J. F. Keller, V. Kumar, and C. J. Taylor, Experiments in Multirobot Air-Ground Coordination, Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, 2004 (pdf).

 

4. M. A. Hsieh, V. Kumar, and C. J. Taylor, Constructing Radio Signal Strength Maps with Multiple Robots, Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, 2004 (pdf).

 

5. M. Powers and T. Balch, 2004, "Value-based communication preservation for mobile robots," in 7th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. (pdf).

 

6. A.R. Wagner, and R.C., Arkin, 2003, "Internalized Plans for Communication-Sensitive Robot Team Behaviors". Proc. IEEE Inter. Conf. on Intelligent Robotics and Systems, pp. 2480-2487. (pdf).

 

7. A.R. Wagner and R.C. Arkin, 2004, "Multi-robot Communication-sensitive Reconnaissance", Proc. IEEE Inter. Conf. on

Robotics and Automation, pp. 4674-4681. (pdf).

 

8. P. Ulam, and R.C., Arkin, 2003, "When Good Comms Go Bad: Communications Recovery For Multi-Robot Teams". Proc. IEEE Inter. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3727-3734. (pdf).

 

9.  M. Castelnovi, R.C., Arkin, and T.R. Collins, 2004, "Reactive Speed Control System Based on Terrain Roughness Detection". Submitted to International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Systems (ICRA) 2005. (pdf).

 

 

 

Questions

 

 

For directions,logistics of ingress and egress, etc. contact

(a)  Irv Rodriguez at rodriguezi@benning.army.mil, phone:  706.545.5109, mobile: 706.575.8421

(b) Mike Kennedy at  kennedym@benning.army.mil,phone: 706.545.9215, mobile: 706.575.8181.

 

 

For questions about the MARS 2020 programs or demos, contact Vijay Kumar at mailto:kumar@cis.upenn.edu or call 215.898.3630 or 215.898.0374. Additional information is available here.

 

 

Acknowledgements

 

This demonstration was funded by DARPA and ARO.