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--- teaching:mfe:ia [2016/03/14 16:12]
mdorigo Birattari: I removed old subjects
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mdorigo [Swarm construction: Development of remote monitoring software for intelligent structures]
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-===== Collective Decision Making with Heterogeneous Agents =====
-Swarm robotics is an interesting approach to the coordination of hundreds of robots as it promotes the realization of systems which are scalable, robust and flexible.
-The master thesis will study how to provide a swarm system with the cognitive capability of collective decision making.
-Each agent has partial knowledge of the available alternatives and of their quality estimate, however the swarm, as a whole, is able to decide for the best option. Recently, numerous works have studied strategies and algorithms to implement this process in distributed systems (often taking inspiration from biology, e.g., bees or cockroaches behaviour). One of the common characteristic of these works is that all the agents of the swarm has the same behaviour. In the Master Thesis project, the student will study how heterogeneity influences the global outcome. We will consider heterogeneity both in the individual behaviour (for instance, robots can estimate diﬀerent option characteristics) and in the interaction network.
-In practice, the student is supposed to (i) model the collective decision making problem
-(ii) design and implement multi-agents simulations, and (iii) analyse and discuss the obtained
-results. Depending on the student skills and preferences, the work can focus more on theoretical
-aspects, thus favouring the modelling and analysis of the problem, or can be more practical,
-thus centring the thesis on the multi-agent implementation part. Possibly, a more practical
-thesis could result (depending on the student skills) in the implementation of a real world
-demonstrator with a swarm of up to 100 robots.
-* Contacts : [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mdorigo|Marco Dorigo]] and Andreagiovanni Reina (IRIDIA)
-===== Development of remote monitoring software for intelligent structures =====
-S-blocks are dynamically reconfigurable blocks used for autonomous construction applications. When two or more S-blocks are assembled they are capable of communicating with each other over a near field communication (NFC) wireless interface. The goal of this master thesis is to develop software to monitor (and control) the blocks in an intelligent structure remotely over the auxiliary Zigbee-based wireless interface. As only one block in the structure is fitted with this wireless interface, it is required that the other blocks communicate with the PC, via routing messages through the block-to-block NFC interfaces. This will require the software on the S-Blocks to be enhanced to use preemptive task swapping, to allow multiple blocks to communicate with each other simultaneously.
-Required skills: The candidates should understand low level computer concepts such as: interrupts, timers, and registers, have some experience with C/C++ programming, and have a working knowledge of the English language.
-* Contact: [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mdorigo|Marco Dorigo]] (IRIDIA)
-===== Evolution of Modular Controllers for Simulated and Real Robots =====
-The goal of this master thesis is investigating how modularity in a robot controller can influence the quality of the behaviours obtained through artificial evolution.
-Similarly to the nervous system that can be divided in central and peripheral, the project will study a modular architecture for neural network controllers. The peripheral modules encode the information coming from the sensory subsytems or going to the motor apparatus. The central system encodes the behavioural rules that map sensations to actions. The project will study methods to develop the peripheral modules by maximising the information transfer from the sensory input and to the motor output, on the basis of measures derived from Information Theory.
-The project will involve experimental activities with both simulated and real robots, and will investigate both individual and collective behaviours.
-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/~vtrianni|Vito Trianni]], Marco Dorigo (IRIDIA)
-===== Localisation and tracking of components in self-assembling systems =====
-The goal of this project is to apply computer vision techniques to track the growth of structures in self-assembling systems. The ability to track the growth of structures will shed light on the dynamics of self-assembly; an aspect of self-assembly that has not been well researched in the macroscopic context.
-As part of the project, the student will have to: (a) find suitable hardware (combination of camera, lens, lighting, etc.), (b) localise multiple components in an environment, (c) track the components in the environment, and (d) track the assembly of components in the environment.
-Required skills: the candidates should be able to program in C++ and have a working knowledge of the English language.
- * Contacts : [[http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mdorigo/HomePageDorigo/ | Marco Dorigo]] and Dhananjay Ipparthi (IRIDIA)