Mika Vainio

The concept of robot society and its utilization

Societies are formed as collaborative structures to execute tasks which are not possible or are difficult for individuals alone. There are many types of biological societies, but societies formed by machines or robots are still rare. The concept offers, however, interesting possibilities especially in applications where a long term fully autonomous operation is needed and/or the work to be done can be executed in a parallel way by a group of individuals. The paper introduces the basic control and communication structures of robot societies by using a model society. Also, a mini-scaled mobile robot which is under construction to be multiplied for the corresponding physical society demonstrator is introduced. Simulation results illustrating the behaviour of the model society are given. Possible applications in waste treatment and process monitoring and cleaning are considered.<<ETX>>

A Novel Marsupial Robot Society: Towards Long-Term Autonomy

Within this paper a novel marsupial multi-robot system intended for long-term operation, the Marsubot Society, is introduced. The Marsubot Society is a platform for robotics and multi-robot system algorithm development. In a system that needs to operate autonomously for extended periods of time, energy is of the essence. The challenges that lie in the energy economy are how to distribute and access energy and what the system can do with the resources. The multi-robot system’s capabilities and limitations are discussed. Results of preliminary tests are presented and ideas for future work introduced.

A concept of an agent-augmented process automation system

This paper studies issues concerning the application of agent technology to process automation systems. We present an approach to achieve increased flexibility and fault-tolerance in process control operations, as well as enhanced systems configuration and maintenance. A functional specification of an agent based system as an extension to traditional process automation systems is described. The software architecture for the implementation of the required functionality is also presented. Furthermore, the connection of a novel type of mobile instrumentation to this concept is presented.

Generic control architecture for a cooperative robot system

A generic control architecture for cooperative robot systems is introduced. Functioning of this architecture is evaluated with underwater robots performing exploring and exploiting task in process environment. This has been performed in simulator and partly by real robots. The results allow optimization of resources in the given task.

An Application Concept of an Underwater Robot Society

Cooperation as a mean to adapt to dynamic environments is well known in animal world from the social insects up to primates. But similar behavior seems to exist also in simple unicellular microbes. In this paper a novel approach for a very application oriented multi-agent system is taken. The principles of this robot society are derived from bacteria, which are here considered as multicellurar organisms. The analogy from Nature includes bacteria’s ability to communicate through chemical substances, to form a colony (a society) and to act as a predator hunting for food. The concept is tested in simulations, where the behavior of the society is used to demonstrate how the extensive use of chemical in a closed water circuit for algae removal could be minimized with a collective cooperation of mobile underwater robots. Additionally, some early tests with the first generation society member will be shown in order to validate some of the simulation results including a simple topological mapping and navigation method.

Bacterium Robot Society-A biologically inspired multi-agent concept for internal monitoring and controlling of processes

Societies are formed as collaborative structures to execute tasks that are not possible or are difficult for individuals alone. There are many types of biological societies formed by animals, but societies formed by machines or robots are still rare. This paper introduces the concept of an application oriented robot society formed by autonomous underwater robots. The Bacterium Robot Society is a generic concept with many potential applications. As an example of such application a scenario, where robot society serves as a mobile distributed sensor instrument inside a process plant, is presented.

Optimizing the Performance of a Robot Society in Structured Environment Through Genetic Algorithms

Societies are formed as collaborative structures to execute tasks that are not possible or are otherwise difficult for individuals alone. There are many types of biological societies, but societies formed by machines or robots are still rare. The concept offers, however, interesting possibilities especially in applications where a long term fully autonomous operation is needed and/or the work to be done can be executed in a parallel way by a group of individuals. To explore these features a foraging society formed by several autonomous mobile robots working in structured environment was defined. The society members have restricted communication properties and their work is evaluated and controlled when needed by an outside operator. So far the problems for the societys functional optimization with a simulator have been caused by the large number of parameters with built-in cross relations and by the strong dependence on a given environment. To deal with these problems and to provide the society ways to adapt itself to changing circumstances Genetic Algorithms were applied. The concept was tested with simulations, which indicated the existence of adaptation both at the individual member level and at the higher society level.

Group Behavior of a Mobile Underwater Robot Society Destroying Distributed Targets in a Closed Process Environment

Abstract In this paper a group behavior of a novel underwater robotic system is considered. The society maps an initially unknown process environment and then collectively removes distributed targets. The operation of robots is based on FSA representation combined with task performance evaluation and inter-robot communication.

Underwater robot society doing internal inspection and leak monitoring of water systems

In the field of civil engineering an effective internal monitoring of pipes and water storage is very problematic. Normally the sensors used for the task are either fixed or manually movable. Thus they will only provide locally and temporally restricted information. As a solution an underwater robotic sensor/actuator society is presented. The system is capable of operating inside a fluid environment as a kind of distributed sensory system. The value of the system emerges from the interactions between the members. Through a communication system the society fuses information from individual members and provides a more reliable estimate of the conditions inside water systems. Tests results in a transparent demo process consisting of tanks and pipes with a volume of 700 liters are presented.

Control architecture for an underwater robot society

In this paper a new three layer control architecture for a multi-robot systems is presented. The architecture is tested in an underwater robot society performing distributed operations in closed aquatic environment. In these tests the performance of three and five member societies is compared to the performance of a single robot.