Synthesis of a Controller for Swarming Robots Performing Underwater Mine Countermeasures

Abstract

This Trident Scholar project involved the synthesis of a swarm controller that is suitable for controlling movements of a group of autonomous robots performing underwater mine countermeasures (UMCM). The main objective of this research project was to combine behavior-based robot control methods with systems-theoretic swarm control techniques to achieve a hybrid that has the best characteristics of both. The sub-goals were: a) To simulate and study a simplified version of the UMCM problem, in 2D with basic robot dynamics and behaviors. b) To investigate the performance of both behavior-based and systems-theoretic controllers for UMCM, and to determine their advantages and disadvantages. Careful development of behavior-based methods using a non-traditional differential equations approach facilitated the hybridization of the two controllers under study, giving rise to a more functional controller capable of controlling swarm level functions while executing the appropriate behaviors at the same time.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 06, 2004
Accession Number
ADA424661

Entities

People

  • Yong C. Tan

Organizations

  • United States Naval Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Autonomous Systems
  • Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
  • Cognition
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Collision Avoidance
  • Control Systems
  • Differential Equations
  • Equations
  • Robotic Swarms
  • Robotics
  • Robots
  • Systems Engineering
  • Two Dimensional
  • Underwater Vehicles
  • United States Naval Academy
  • Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Robotics and Automation.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Autonomous System Control