13 accepted papers
Velocity Obstacles (VO) methods form a paradigm for collision avoidance strategies among moving obstacles and agents. While VO methods perform well in simple multi-agent environments, they do not guarantee safety and can show overly conservative behavior in common situations. In this paper, we propo
Behavior trees offer a modular approach to developing an overall controller from a set of sub-controllers that solve different sub-problems. These sub-controllers can be created using various methods, such as classical model-based control or reinforcement learning (RL). To achieve the overall goal,
In this paper we show how to improve the performance of backward chained behavior trees (BTs) that include policies trained with reinforcement learning (RL). BTs represent a hierarchical and modular way of combining control policies into higher level control policies. Backward chaining is a design p…
Multi agent coverage and robot navigation are two very important research fields within robotics. However, their intersection has received limited attention. In multi agent coverage, perfect navigation is often assumed, and in robot navigation, the focus is often to minimize the localization error w…
Air Combat is a high-risk activity carried out by trained professionals operating sophisticated equipment. During this activity, a number of trade-offs have to be made, such as the balance between risk and efficiency. A policy that minimizes risk could have very low efficiency, and one that maximize…
A robot control system is often composed of a set of low level continuous controllers and a switching policy that decides which of those continuous controllers to apply at each time instant. The switching policy can be either a Finite State Machine (FSM), a Behavior Tree (BT) or some other structure
In this paper, we show how a planning algorithm can be used to automatically create and update a Behavior Tree (BT), controlling a robot in a dynamic environment. The planning part of the algorithm is based on the idea of back chaining. Starting from a goal condition we iteratively select actions to…
Mobile robots, be it autonomous or teleoperated, require stable communication with the base station to exchange valuable information. Given the stochastic elements in radio signal propagation, such as shadowing and fading, and the possibilities of unpredictable events or hardware failures, communica…
In this paper we study the problem of synthesizing correct-by-construction Behavior Trees (BTs) controlling agents in adversarial environments. The proposed approach combines the modularity and reactivity of BTs with the formal guarantees of Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) methods. Given a set of admiss…
Teleoperation of a mobile robot manipulating and exploring an object shares many similarities with the manipulation of virtual objects in a 3D design software such as AutoCAD. The user interfaces are however quite different, mainly for historical reasons. In this paper we aim to change that, and dra
Behavior Trees (BTs) is a way of organizing the switching structure of a control system, that was originally developed in the computer gaming industry but is now also being used in robotics. The Teleo-Reactive programs (TRs) is a highly cited reactive hierarchical robot control approach suggested by…
In the future mobile dual-arm robots are expected to perform many tasks. Kinematically, the configuration of two manipulators that branch from the same common mobile base results in a serial-to-parallel kinematic structure, which makes inverse kinematic computations non-trivial. The motion of the ba…
Teleoperated Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) are expected to play an important role in future search and rescue operations. In such tasks, two factors are crucial for a successful mission completion: operator situational awareness and robust network connectivity between operator and UGV. In this pap…