Date of Award

6-5-1998

Document Type

Thesis (Undergraduate)

Department or Program

Department of Computer Science

First Advisor

Daniela Rus

Abstract

This thesis investigates the use of multiple mobile sensors to guide the motion of a distributed manipulation system. In our system, multiple robots cooperatively place a large object at a goal in a dynamic, unstructured, unmapped environment. We take the system developed in [Rus, Kabir, Kotay, Soutter 1996], which employs a single mobile sensor for navigational tasks, and extend it to allow the use of multiple mobile sensors. This allows the system to perform successful manipulations in a larger class of spaces than was possible in the single scout model. We focus on the development of a negotiation protocol that enables multiple scouts to cooperatively plan system motion. This algorithm enhances the previous' system's scalability and adds greater fault-tolerance. Two alternate algorithms for cooperation: a modification of negotiation and a bidding protocol, are also discussed. Finally, an implementation of the negotiation protocol is described and experimental data produced by the implementation is analyzed.

Comments

Originally posted in the Dartmouth College Computer Science Technical Report Series, number PCS-TR98-332.

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TR98-332.code.tar.Z (52 kB)
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