Robots%20Everywhere:%20From%20Exploration%20in%20the%20Arctic%20to%20Helping%20the%20Elderly%20at%20Home

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Robots Everywhere From Exploration in the
Arctic to Helping the Elderly at Home

• M. Bernardine Dias

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Some Graduate Women in Robotics
Object Segmentation
Stella Yu
Maayan Roth
Cooperative Robotics
Joelle Pineau
Dialogue Modeling for A Robotic Nursing-Assistant
Allison Bruce
Social Robots
Vandi Verma
Autonomous Fault Detection and Identification
Ashley Stroupe
Cooperative Localization
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Sun-Synchronous Exploration
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Sliding Autonomy
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Sun-Synchrony
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Navigation Algorithm
Collaborative work with Chris Urmson
Get State
Grab Images Perform Stereo
Generate Traversability Map
Insert Traversability into Navigation Map
Get State
Plan Path to Goal Select Arc
Issue Drive Command
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Integrated Performance

• Hyperion operated autonomously for 90 of a 6.1km
  traverse
• The navigation software generated efficient paths

• Stereo based obstacle detection was very reliable
  
• Average Speed gt20cm/s

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Navigation Example
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Acknowledgments

• Stewart Moorehead
• Ben Shamah
• Jim Teza
• Paul Tompkins
• Vandi Verma
• Mike Wagner
• David Wettergreen
• William Whittaker

Funded by NASA grant NAG9-1256
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Market-Based Multi-Robot Coordination
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Market Approach

• Robots in a team are organized as an economy
• Team mission is best achieved when the economy
  maximizes production and minimizes costs
• Robots interact with each other to exchange money
  for tasks to maximize profit
• The system is designed such that robots are both
  self-interested and benevolent so that it is in
  their self interest to do global good

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Agent Interaction
Robots
Tasks performed
Operator (GUI)
Revenue paid
Operator Exec
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Results
Robots
Testing environments
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Implementation Scenario
Task Explore a designated region and
characterize as follows If at any point X1, X2,
, or Xn is observed, perform the relevant
scientific experiment, and if the result is
Y1,,Yn then retrieve a sample for further
analysis.

• Some Challenges
• Experiments and samples retrieval
• Heterogeneous team
• Robots get disabled
• Information offload to the earth
• Periodic communication window to earth
• Limited range for communication
• Creative alternatives for disabilities that
  cannot be fixed

TraderBots
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Acknowledgements
This research was sponsored in part by NASA,
under contract "Heterogeneous Multi-Rover
Coordination for Planetary Exploration"
(contract number NCC2-1243) and in part by DARPA,
under contract Cognitive Colonies (contract
number N66001-99-1-8921, monitored by SPAWAR).
Cognitive Colonies group Scott Thayer, Bruce
Digney, Martial Hebert, Robert Zlot, Aaron
Morris, Charles Smart, and Bart Nabbe
Federation of Intelligent Robotics Explorers
(FIRE) group Reid Simmons, Trey Smith, Dani
Goldberg, Steve Smith, Jeff Schneider, Drew
Bagnell, Vincent Cicirello, David Apfelbaum, and
Stuart Anderson.