Plan Rehan O'Grady

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Approach

  1. Design Experiment
  2. Fix experiment (Confirmation from Marco)
  3. Build Controller
  4. Do Experiment
  5. Publish

Long Term - Phd Theme

Explore aspects of functional self assembly.
  1. Decision Process
    • Is self-assembly necessary
  2. Structure
    • What is appropriate size for connected groups
    • What is appropriate shape for connected groups
  3. Behaviour
    • What to do when connected (cooperative movement, transport, navigation, etc)?
  4. Timing
    • When should swarm assemble?
    • When should swarm disassemble?


Short Term (~End March 2006)

Goal

Conduct new experiment which builds on previous functional self-assembly experiment. Publish results of new experiment and functional self assembly experiment together in journal.

Experiment

Environment
  • Same as previous functional self assembly experiment.
  • ?Robots started in a line one after the other - mimic ant trail?
Goal
  • Large group of robots must navigate over hill towards target.
  • If they encounter hill, they aggregate into several two sbot swarmbots (using group size selection mechanism)
  • The two-sbot swarmbots separately navigate the hill into the target zone. (using adaptive swarm rotation to avoid parallel approach)
Methods
  • Reuse existing functional self assembly controller. (Published work)
  • Group size selection mechanism to form two sbot swarm bots. (Completely new work)
  • Use adaptive swarm rotation mechanis to avoid parallel approach problem. (Previous unpublished work)


Medium Term (~September 2006)

Goal

Further experimentation to add body to Phd / publish.

Experiment

Goal
  • Have sbots detect how difficult an obstacle is and form group size / group pattern accordingly.
Task
  • Cross Hole to get to target
  • Start in two sbot swarm configuration.
  • Detect hole. If hole is too big, join with other two sbot team. Form 4 sbot line.


Method
  • Use adaptive swarm rotation throughout.
  • ?Detect alignment of hole?


Misc

  • Help Lausanne disassemble / repair robots - learn about hardware. Skills transfer for lab.