Jaime Bobadilla Molina.Pdf
c 2013 Jaime Leonardo Bobadilla Molina MINIMALIST MULTI-AGENT FILTERING AND GUIDANCE BY JAIME LEONARDO BOBADILLA MOLINA DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Samuel T. King, Chair Professor Steven M. LaValle, Director of Research Professor Tarek Abdelzaher Assistant Professor Dylan A. Shell, Texas A&M University ABSTRACT Advances in technology have allowed robots to be equipped with powerful sensors, complex actuators, computers with high processing capabilities, and high bandwidth communication links. This trend has enabled the development of sophisticated algorithms and systems to solve tasks such as navigation, patrolling, coverage, tracking, and counting. However, these systems have to deal with issues such as dynamical system identification, sensor calibration, and computation of powerful filters for state-feedback policies. This thesis presents novel techniques for tackling the above mentioned tasks. Our methods differ from traditional approaches since they do not require system identification, geometric map building, or state estimation. Instead, we follow a minimalist approach that takes advantage of the wild motions of bodies in their environment. The bodies move within regions connected by gates that enforce specific flows or provide simple sensor feedback. More specifically, five types of gates are proposed: 1) static gates, in which the flow direction of bodies cannot be changed during execution; 2) pliant gates, whose flow directions can be changed by gate-body collisions; 3) controllable gates, whose flow directions can be changed by powered actuators and sensor feedback; 4) virtual gates, in which the flow is affected by robot sensing and do not represent a physical obstruction; and 5) directional detection gates that do not change the flow of bodies, but simply detect bodies’ transitions from region to region.
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