DURIP The Penn Fantastic Beasts Robot Arena
Abstract
Dr. Marc Steinberg (ONR Code 351), Dr. Behzad Kamgar-Parsi (ONR Code 311), Dr. ThomasMcKenna (ONR Code 341), Dr. Robert St. Amant (ARL) Funds are requested for the envisioned University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Fantastic BeastsRobot Arena, an experimental facility that will support the study and physical experimentation offlying, walking, crawling, driving, and swimming robots in realistic environments. The FantasticBeasts Robot Arena will have the ability to emulate complex environments, e.g., environments withdense foliage, uneven terrains, and/or nonlinear water current/wind flows. The intellectual goalsare to use the Fantastic Beasts Robot Arena to (a) demonstrate how diverse robot morphologiesand sensorimotor capabilities can interact to learn perception, scene understanding, and actuationskills from each other, and (b) how robust and adaptable algorithms can be developed to enablerobots to operate in complex, real-world environments over extended deployments.The research team has secured 1,600 square feet of laboratory space in the GRASP Treehouse,a 4,000-square-foot research and educational facility, to house the Penn Fantastic Beasts RobotArena. The facility willsupport a diverse collection of robots including but not limited to leggedrobots, flying vehicles, underwater soft robots, and custom-built robots of varying sizes. Theserobots will be instrumented with different types of sensors and be equipped with different computationalabilities. A motion capture system will be used to track the different types of robots andprovide localization under certain scenarios. Landscaping materials such as fake foliage, rocks,mulch, dirt, broken bricks, and fog machines, will be used to create different landforms, reliefs,vegetation, and visibility conditions. The goal is for the Robot Arena to be customizable basedon individual project needs and give researchers maximum flexibility when creating the relevantfeatures of a given environment of interest.To foster the usability of the Fantastic Beasts Robot Arena, a software layer will be developedto allow researchers to use the Robot Arena both on- and off-site. The educational goal is to enableseamless access to different types of robots and perception, control, and planning algorithms fora broad range of students and researchers. This system is envisioned as a way to make progresstoward improving scholastic preparation and geographic and socio-economic disparities.The proposed Fantastic Beasts Robot Arena will be integrated with the existing DoD-fundedPenn1: Experimental Testbed on Wireless Autonomous Systems and Multi-Robot Fluid Tracking(MRFT) facilities to establish a comprehensive ecosystem for robotic experimentation. This enhancedframework will support the full spectrum of activities, including testing, proof-of-concept,refinement, and field experimentation. The combination of complex, semi-controlled, and realisticenvironments provided by the proposed Robot Arena and the existing Penn1 and MRFTfacilitieswill allow for meaningful exploration and experimentation of mobility and perceptual challengesposed by single and multi robot systems.The platform will provide a unique resource for Philadelphia and its neighboring areas. ThePenn Fantastic Beast Robot Arena will also be beneficial to our many collaborators at the DoD.In particular, ONR Awards No. N00014-22-1-2255, No. N00014-22-1-2157, No. N00014-23-1-2068, DARPA Award No. HR001123S0011, and ARL MURI Award No. W911NF2010080. ONRAward No. N00014-22-1-2157 is a joint Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and Penn project. Inaddition, the DCIST CRA alliance (W911NF-17-2-0181), ARL CRADA-20-039-J003, will alsobenefit from the proposed facility.This project abstract is publicly releasable.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 13, 2025
- Source ID
- N000142512070
Entities
People
- Mong-ying Hsieh
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Pennsylvania