Swarm Robotics at the University of Wyoming

Dr. William M. Spears Dr. Diana F. Spears Computer Science Department University of Wyoming
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Traditional Robotics
Traditionally, robotics researchers focus on the development of highly capable and expensive robots. Only a few are made. Predator airplanes With swarm robotics, the emphasis is on having lots of relatively inexpensive robots. Micro-air vehicles

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Advantages
Swarms of robots are effective:
They can perform tasks that one expensive robot cannot.

Swarms are robust:

Even if some robots fail, the swarm can still achieve the task.

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Goal
The UW Distributed Robotics Laboratory serves as an environment for prototyping and demonstration of proof-of-principle for swarm robotics. Our goal is to design methods for enabling groups of robots to perform important realworld tasks
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Tasks
Search and Rescue Surveillance Convoy / Formation Movement
Organizing into a Formation Movement Toward a Goal Avoiding Obstacles Chemical Plume Source Tracing

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Search and Rescue Project

Graduate Student: Wesley Kerr

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Search and Rescue Simulation

Task: Robots must avoid obstacles and each other while reaching the rescue area.
Rescue Area
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Surveillance Project
Funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Graduate Students: Wesley Kerr Suranga Hettiarachchi Dimitri Zarzhitsky

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Scenario: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Cooperate To Detect Targets

UAV UAV UAV

Target detector

Terrain detector UW Computer Science Department

Surveillance Simulation

UAVs

Task: UAVs must detect as many of the moving targets as possible, while avoiding each other.

forest
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Convoy / Formation Movement Project

Graduate Student: Suranga Hettiarachchi

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Formation Organization
Task 1: Robots must organize themselves into formation.

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Formation Movement
Task 2: Robots must organize themselves into formation and then move toward a light source.

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Formation Movement Simulation

Task 3: Robots must organize themselves into formation and then move toward a goal, while avoiding obstacles.

goal

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Chemical Plume Tracing Project

Portions of this work to be funded by the Joint Robotics Program. Testing to take place at Camp Guernsey. Graduate Student: Dimitri Zarzhitsky

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Plume Tracing Simulation

Robots must organize themselves into a formation, and then locate the source of a chemical hazard, while avoiding obstacles.

source

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Plume Tracing Experiments

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Ultrasonic Localization for Swarms of Robots

Portions of this work to be funded by the Joint Robotics Program. Testing to take place at Camp Guernsey. Graduate Students: Paul Maxim Thomas Kunkel

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Hardware implementation

Swarm robot technology equipped with a localization system

Use trilateration method for local positioning system
Robot prototype
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Project Participants
FACULTY
Jerry Hamann, Cameron Wright (Electrical and Computer Engineering) M. P. Sharma (Chemical Engineering) John Schabron (Chemist, Western Research Institute) Dave Walrath, Doug Smith, Dimitri Mavriplis (Mechanical Engineering) Dan Stanescu (Mathematics) David Thayer (Physics and Astronomy)
Rodney Heil Suranga Hettiarachchi Wesley Kerr Lee Frey Thomas Kunkel Paul Maxim Mark Patterson Yi Shi Dimitri Zarzhitsky Paul Hansen Kurt Lawton Ben Palmer David Weiser Ella Wellman Brian Zuelke

GRADUATE STUDENTS

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

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Questions and Robot Demonstration

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