Algorithms and Software/Hardware Infrastructure for Distributed Miniature Robots

Project summary:

This project pursues research into a hardware/software infrastructure to improve robotic response capabilities in the case of robot teams and proposes some innovative robot designs that depart from the shape and functionality constraints of the initial platform. The development of large-scale robot teams has faced a number of difficulties. The complexity of such systems has been hard to simulate, especially in the case of a many to one relationship between a marsupial robot and the robots it can deploy. Additionally, the physical systems can be expensive to construct and maintain. However, there are several scenarios in which large scale distributed teams are advantageous, such as urban search and rescue, biological or chemical release monitoring, and distributed surveillance and reconnaissance. Distributed robot teams are often able to leverage the computational and locomotive capabilities of a larger system to transport, coordinate, and control miniature robots that may carry more specialized sensing capabilities into areas that are spatially restricted.