Stefano Pagnottelli

Constrained and quantized Kalman filtering for an RFID robot localization problem

In this paper a global localization problem of a robot moving in a known environment is considered. The environment is equipped with a relatively sparse set of passive RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tags. The robot can detect the presence of the tags when traveling in their proximity and combines this information with the one given by other sensors (e.g. odometry). The RFID measurements are characterized by a highly non Gaussian noise: for this reason in the literature Particle Filter (PF) methods have often been used to fuse these data with the measurements coming from other sensors. In this paper a different approach is pursued, based on the observation that RFID readings can be considered as noisy quantized measurements of the pose of the robot or as noisy dynamic constraints on the pose itself. This allows to exploit the rich literature on Kalman quantized filtering or Kalman constrained estimation, to realize reliable methods with a satisfactory performance which require a computational time significantly lower with respect to the one needed by a PF. Simulative and experimental results will be reported to illustrate the proposed methods.

Visual and laser sensory data fusion for outdoor robot localisation and navigation

An architecture for robot localization and navigation performing fusion among odometry, laser range data and range from a neural stereoscopic vision system is presented. The estimate robot position is used to safely navigate through the environment. The stereoscopic sub system delivers dense information in the entire field of view. This feature allows a safer navigation of the robot, since, for example, arch-like obstacles may be avoided. Experimental results are presented concerning localization and obstacle detection. The precision attained by the system allows safe navigation. The use of visual data is of great importance in many operative scenarios

An autonomous aerial vehicle for unmanned security and surveillance operations: design and test

This paper presents the development of an electrically powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with wingspan of 2.5 m. A flight control system is constructed using small and light-weight components. The logical interconnection and schematic layout of the AFC (Automatic Flight Control) are presented. The UAV prototype has been successfully tested carrying a high resolution camera, and was able to acquire the images and the video of the fly zone and transmit them back to the ground station.

SARA: a Flexible Framework for Rapid Prototyping of Mobile Robotics Applications

The paper describes a software architecture aimed at rapid development and testing of code for mobile robotics applications. The architecture is based on player/stage and allows to integrate in a single environment varieties of heterogeneous mobile platforms and varieties of localization and navigation algorithms. The paper describes the proposed architecture and its usage to develop some relevant applications

Collaborative exploration for a team of mobile robots: Centralized and decentralized strategies

Abstract In this paper, the problem of collaborative exploration of a wholly unknown environment by means of a team of mobile robots is studied. To allow for a quantitative comparison of different strategies, some performance indexes are introduced. Two different strategies are proposed: a decentralized strategy, based on free-market concepts, and a strategy based on the presence of a coordinating robot. The proposed strategies will be evaluated by means of simulation models. The proposed strategies are of interest also in underwater environments.

A COTS-Based Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SR-H3) for Security, Environmental Monitoring and Surveillance Operations: Design and Test

This paper presents the development of a mini unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with wingspan of 2.5 m. A flight control system is constructed using small and light components. The logical interconnection and schematic layout of the Automatic Flight Control are presented. The UAV has been successfully tested carrying a high resolution camera, and was able to acquire the images and the video of the fly zone and transmit them back to the ground station.

An architecture for rapid prototyping of control schemes for artificial ventricles

This paper presents an experimental system aimed at rapid prototyping of feedback control schemes for ventricular assist devices, and artificial ventricles in general. The system comprises a classical mock circulatory system, an actuated bellow-based ventricle chamber, and a software architecture for control schemes implementation and experimental data acquisition, visualization and storing. Several experiments have been carried out, showing good performance of ventricular pressure tracking control schemes.