Browsing by Author "Lapoint, Monica"

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    Performance Evaluation of a Multi-Robot Search & Retrieval System: Experiences with MinDART
    (2003-02-08) Rybski, Paul E.; Veeraraghavan, Harini; Lapoint, Monica; Gini, Maria
    The costs of developing mobile robot teams can be reduced if they are designed to exploit swarm techniques. In this methodology many simple homogeneous units solve complex tasks through emergent behavior. The challenge lies in selecting an appropriate control strategy for the individual units. Complexity in design costs both money and time, therefore a control strategy should be just complex enough to perform the task successfully in a variety of environments, relative to some performance measure. To explore the effects of control strategies and environmental factors on performance, we have conducted two sets offoraging experiments using real robots (the {em Minnesota Distributed Autonomous Robotic Team}). The first set of experiments tested the efficacy of localization capabilities, in addition to the effects of team size and target distribution. The second set tested the efficacyof communication. We found that more complex control strategies do not necessarily improve task completion times, however they can reduce variance in performance measures. This can be valuable information for designers who need to assess the potential costs and benefits of increased complexity in design.
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    Self-deployment algorithms for mobile sensors networks
    (2005-03-31) Lapoint, Monica; Gini, Maria
    Large and sophisticated networks of sensors are being developed and deployed in a variety of environments, from military surveillance, to environmental monitoring, and smart spaces. Adding mobility to sensors, by placing them on robots, can make the sensors more useful but at the cost of adding new challenges. We focus on the problem of automated deployment of the sensors, in particular on how to disperse a group of robots in an unknown environment so as to cover the environment as much as possible while staying within communications range. We assume there is no central control, the robots operate independently, and the only communications among them are to ensure they are within communication range. Whenever a robot loses communication, it moves to attempt to regain communication. We evaluate different algorithms based on the percentage of the environment that the group of robots succeeds in observing, the percentage of time the robots are within communications range, and how long it takes for them to reacquire communication.