Research seminar "Synchronization Strategies for Robotic Networks"

Abstract:
Advances in embedded processor and sensor technology in the last thirty years have helped accelerate interest in the field of robotics. As robots become smaller, more capable, and less expensive, there is a growing demand for teams of robots in various application domains. Robotic networks are particularly well suited to execute tasks that cover wide geographic ranges, require significant parallelization, and/or depend on capabilities that are varied in both quantity and difficulty. Example applications include littoral exploration and surveillance, rainforest health monitoring, autonomous transportation systems, warehouse automation, and hazardous waste clean-up. This talk focuses on synchronization strategies to control robotic networks. I will first outline some of the projects at the MARHES Lab including our work on agile transportation of suspended loads using aerial robots and coordination of heterogeneous robotic networks. I will then present our multi-vehicle test bed and its applications. And finally, I will describe our recent work on two problems: (1) detecting changes in the topology of a robotic network through synchronization of nonlinear oscillators, and (2) coordinating a team of nonholonomic sensors using a binary consensus protocol.

CV:
Rafael Fierro is an Associate Professor of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico where he has been since 2007. He received a M.Sc. degree in control engineering from the University of Bradford, England and a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas-Arlington in 1997. Prior to joining UNM, he held a postdoctoral appointment with the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania (1999-2001) and a faculty position with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oklahoma State University (2001-2007). His research interests include nonlinear and adaptive control, robotics, hybrid systems, autonomous vehicles, and multi-agent systems. He directs the Multi-Agent, Robotics, Hybrid and Embedded Systems (MARHES) Laboratory. Rafael Fierro was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, a 2004 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and the 2007 International Society of Automation (ISA) Transactions Best Paper Award. He is serving as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE) and has recently been appointed as Associate Editor of the new IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems (T-CNS).