20 accepted papers
This letter takes a first step towards the analysis of safety <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">and</i> performance critical computational tasks for autonomous robots. Our contribution is a safety-performance (SP) metric that ensures sa
In this paper, we consider two coupled problems for distributed multi-robot systems (MRSs) coordinating with on-board sensors: emph{rejection of sensor attacks and adaptive tuning of interaction gains}. First, MRSs with on-board sensors can be more susceptible to sensor attacks, and therefore must b
In this work, we consider the problem of planning paths for a team of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to assist search and rescue practitioners. To address the problem, we develop a fully integrated framework that includes information from all aspects of the search environment. We take in…
In this letter, we consider a distributed submodular maximization problem for multi-robot systems when attacked by adversaries. One of the major challenges for multi-robot systems is to increase resilience against failures or attacks. This is particularly important for distributed systems under atta
In this work, we propose a method to solve the interaction planning problem for a set of mobile agents with obstacles and agent collisions via a core path planner and constrained random position sampling approach. The interaction constraint is posed in the form of an arbitrary number of discretized
In this letter, we aim to calculate the probability that a dynamic multi-robot system (MRS) satisfies the conditions of (r,s)-robustness, given that robot communication is subject to random failures that can be modeled using a probability distribution. The property of (r,s)-robustness is a topologic
In this paper, our motivating application lies in precision agriculture where accurate modeling of forage is essential for informing rotational grazing strategies. Unfortunately, a major difficulty arises in modeling forage processes as they evolve on large scales according to complex ecological inf…
In this paper, we formulate and solve the intermittent deployment problem, which yields strategies that couple when heterogeneous robots should sense an environmental process, with where a deployed team should sense in the environment. As a motivation, suppose that a spatiotemporal process is slowly…
In this paper, we address the problem of optimal topology selection for stable coordination of multi-robot systems with asymmetric interactions. This problem arises naturally for multi-robot systems that interact based on sensing, e.g., with limited field of view (FOV) cameras. From our previous eff…
In this paper, we optimize the interaction graph of a multi-robot system (MRS) by maximizing its probability of security while requiring the MRS to have the fewest edges possible. Edges that represent robot interactions exist according to a probability distribution and security is defined using the…
In this letter, we train a convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict the probability of security of a multi-robot system (MRS) when robot interactions are probabilistic. In the context of MRSs, probabilistic security is defined using the control-theoretic notion of left invertibility, a necessar
In this paper, we formulate a combinatorial optimization problem that aims to maximize the accuracy of a lower bound estimate of the probability of security of a multi-robot system (MRS), while minimizing the computational complexity involved in its calculation. Security of an MRS is defined using t…
In this letter, we demonstrate a formulation for optimizing coupled submodular maximization problems with provable sub-optimality bounds. In robotics applications, it is quite common that optimization problems are coupled with one another and therefore cannot be solved independently. Specifically, w
This paper addresses a fundamental question of multi-agent knowledge distribution: what information should be sent to whom and when, with the limited resources available to each agent? Intelligent Knowledge Distribution is a framework that answers these questions. Communication requirements for mult…
We study two multi-robot assignment problems for multi-target tracking. We consider distributed approaches in order to deal with limited sensing and communication ranges. We seek to simultaneously assign trajectories and targets to the robots. Our focus is on local algorithms that achieve performanc…
In this paper, we formulate an environmental sensing problem for multi-robot teams that couples intermittent deployments with the selection of team composition and sensor type over time. We suppose that a multi-robot team needs to autonomously sense an environmental process and find the optimal poli…
In this paper, we develop a method for determining the probability of a multi-robot system (MRS) being secure when robot interactions are modeled as a probabilistic graph. To define the security of an MRS, we apply an existing control-theoretic notion of network attacks based on the left invertibili…
In this paper, we demonstrate how topological constraints, as well as other abstract constraints, can be integrated into task allocation by applying the combinatorial theory of matroids. By modeling problems as an intersection of matroid constraints, arbitrary combinatorial relationships can be achi…
In this paper, we consider the problem of connectivity maintenance in multi-robot systems with unicycle kinematics. While previous work has approached this problem through local control techniques, we propose a solution which achieves global connectivity maintenance under nonholonomic constraints. I…
In this paper, we consider the problem of controlling a multi-robot team in order to track a mobile target with unknown dynamics. Our contribution in this context is a non-linear observability analysis of the target tracking network, which yields insights into the topological and actuation condition…