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--- teaching:mfe:ia [2011/03/23 08:28]
mdorigo [Studying collaboration between flying robots and ground-based robots]
+++ teaching:mfe:ia [2011/03/23 16:07]
mdorigo [Self-organized task allocation in swarm robotics]
@@ Line 215: / Line 215: @@
 */
-===== Self-organized task allocation in swarm robotics =====
+===== Experiments with the e-puck robot and the IRIDIA TAM =====
-Swarm robotics is an innovative branch of collective robotics that aims at designing robot behaviors by taking inspiration from social animals, such as ants and bees. "Task allocation" in such robotic swarms is the problem of "who is doing what job and when?" Obviously, this problem of assigning jobs to a whole swarm robots can be very difficult, especially when using many robots that cannot communicate with each other on a global level.
+At IRIDIA, we are conducting many experiments with the e-puck
+robot and a task abstraction device, the IRIDIA TAM. The topic of the
+master thesis would be integrate the TAM with the e-puck robot and our
+simulation environment, ARGoS. The final goal is to have the TAM tested
+in real-robot experiments.
-The goal of the project is to implement new algorithms for solving this problem on the e-Puck robot and run extensive experiments with this robot in various environments. The project will involve experimentation with about 30 real e-Pucks. The project is tightly connected to the research in swarm robotics carried out at IRIDIA.
+The subject is practical and requires a dedicated student that is able
+to program in C++. A possible candidate should be willing to work with
-Required skills: The candidates should be acquainted with C/C++ programming and have a working knowledge of the English language.
+hardware and real robots. Additionally, the candidate must be very
+motivated and creative. The working language is English.
   * Contacts: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mbiro|Mauro Birattari]], Marco Dorigo, Arne Brutschy, Giovanni Pini (IRIDIA)
@@ Line 235: / Line 240: @@
   * Contacts: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mbiro|Mauro Birattari]], Marco Dorigo, Nithin Mathews (IRIDIA)
-===== Adaptive collective alignment with a swarm of e-puck robots =====
+===== Recruitment strategies for collective decision making in swarm robotics =====
-Flocking is a fascinating behavior that birds are able to achieve without a leader or a common frame of reference. Moreover, in some cases, the group goes in the correct direction even if only a small proportion of the group knows the goal direction. This allows birds to avoid a predator even if only a subset of the flock sees it. We want to study one of the most interesting aspects of this mechanism, that is how a group can align collectively to a common direction and change this direction over time according to some stimuli perceived only by a small minority of individuals.
-The goal of this project is to apply a methodology, so far studied only in simulation, to the e-puck robots, in order to tackle the adaptive collective alignment problem. A group of e-pucks has to reach consensus and turn to a common random heading direction, using a common light source as reference point. Furthermore, when an obstacle is perceived by a small minority of the group, consensus should be achieved in order to align to a new direction which allows them to avoid the obstacle.
+Studies of ants and bees have led to different models of collective
+decision making methods in social insects. Swarms of cooperating
+robots also have to find consensus decisions and thus face similar
+problems as social insects. It is an interesting research question if
+the biological models can be applied to create decentralized and
+robust decision making methods for swarms of robots. More precisely,
+we assume that robots are able to estimate their confidence
+about their own decision. Thus, if a group of robots is unsure about a
+decision they shall recruit more robots into the decision process to
+assure a certain quality in the overall decision.
-Required skills: The candidates should be acquainted with C/C++ programming and have a working knowledge of the English language.
+The goal of this master thesis project is to study different
+recruitment strategies for decision making in swarms of robots. The
+following application scenario will be implemented. A group
+of robots need to classify an object in order to operate on it.
+Through its sensors the single robots can classify an object with a
+certain accuracy. This opinion can then be shared in a group to reach
+consensus. If the individual robot's opinions differ strongly from the
+one of other
+robots or the robots do not have the necessary skills/sensors they
+might not be able to reach a final decision. In this case they can
+recruit other robots and involve them in the decision making process.
+Required skills: the candidates should be acquainted with C/C++
+programming and have a working knowledge of the English language.
-  * Contact: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mbiro|Mauro Birattari]], Marco Dorigo, Eliseo Ferrante, Ali Emre Turgut (IRIDIA)
+* Contact: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mbiro|Mauro Birattari]], Marco Dorigo, Manuele Brambilla, Alexander Scheidler (IRIDIA)
 ===== Scalable aggregation in swarm robotics without global information or environmental clues =====