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Papers by Frank E Schneider

In this paper we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment by a team of robots. As... more In this paper we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment by a team of robots. As in single-robot exploration the goal is to minimize the overall exploration time. The key problem to be solved in the context of multiple robots is to choose appropriate target points for the individual robots so that they simultaneously explore different regions of the environment. We present an approach for the coordination of multiple robots which, in contrast to previous approaches, simultaneously takes into account the cost of reaching a target point and its utility. The utility of a target point is given by the size of the unexplored area that a robot can cover with its sensors upon reaching that location. Whenever a target point is assigned to a specific robot, the utility of the unexplored area visible from this target position is reduced for the other robots. This way, a team of multiple robots assigns different target points to the individual robots. The technique has been implemented and tested extensively in real-world experiments and simulation runs. The results given in this paper demonstrate that our coordination technique significantly reduces the exploration time compared to previous approaches.

IMPACT OF AUTONOMY IN MULTIROBOT SYSTEMS ON TELEOPERATION PERFORMANCEBoris Trouvain, Hans L. Wolf... more IMPACT OF AUTONOMY IN MULTIROBOT SYSTEMS ON TELEOPERATION PERFORMANCEBoris Trouvain, Hans L. Wolf and Frank E. Schneider ... work has been done on its specific challenges in the domain of exploration, mapping and formation building (Simmons et al ...

Journal of Field Robotics, 2015

Ergonomie und Mensch-Maschine-Systeme, 2008

Die Vernetzte Operationsführung dient der Führung und dem Einsatz von Streitkräften auf der Basis... more Die Vernetzte Operationsführung dient der Führung und dem Einsatz von Streitkräften auf der Basis eines streitkräftegemeinsamen, führungsübergreifenden und interoperablen Kommunikations- und Informationsverbundes. Wesentliche Bestandteile der Vernetzten Operationsführung sind Kommunikations- und Sensornetze. Für den Einsatz von Mehrrobotersystemen ist die Integration in die vernetzte Operationsführung von entscheidender Bedeutung. Als Grundlage für die Integration ist jedoch ein geeignetes Kommunikationsnetz notwendig. Es werden daher zunächst basierend auf dem NATO-Workshop „1st NATO Workshop on short-term realizable (multi-)robot systems in military domains“ die Kommunikationsanforderungen an ein Mehrrobotersystem identifiziert und Schwierigkeiten bei der Umsetzung in einem Kommunikationssystem diskutiert. Anschließend wird mit dem Protokoll WNet ein flexibler Rahmen vorgestellt, um Lösungen für Kommunikationssysteme zu untersuchen, die möglichst viele dieser Anforderungen berücksichtigen. Die zusätzliche oder detailliertere Berücksichtigung von Anforderungen kann dabei durch Erweiterungen des Rahmens vorgenommen werden. WNet ist somit ein experimenteller Protokollrahmen, um unterschiedliche Verfahren zur Kommunikation in Mehrrobotersystemen zu vergleichen. Das Ergebnis dieser Vergleiche soll dann die Grundlage für ein oder mehrere geeignete Kommunikationssysteme für Mehrrobotersysteme bilden, die eine einfache Integration in die vernetzte Operationsführung erlauben.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 2011

ABSTRACT It is generally a problematic task to compare different approaches and methods in the fi... more ABSTRACT It is generally a problematic task to compare different approaches and methods in the field of outdoor robotics [1]. In the majority of cases, results are reported only for a specific robotic system. All tasks are solved in a static and often specially defined environment, making it hard to compare the outcome with results from other research groups, other approaches, and other robots. The commonly used means of “proof by video” or “proof by (one) example” are insufficient for obvious reasons. As one possible solution, robot competitions can be a benchmark for real robot systems [2].

ABSTRACT Gross, R.; Alboul, L.; Melhuish, C.; Witkowski, M.; Prescott, T.J.; Penders, J.

Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 6, 2007

ABSTRACT Surveillance is a typical task in the field of multi robot systems that operate as a sec... more ABSTRACT Surveillance is a typical task in the field of multi robot systems that operate as a security system. This paper is concerned with the special problem of observing expanded objects in such settings. A solution in form of a Viterbi based tracking algorithm is presented. Thus a Maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) filtering technique is applied to perform the tracking process. The mathematical background of the algorithm is proposed. The method uses the robot sensors in form of laser range finders and a motion and observation model of the objects being tracked. The special features of the Viterbi based algorithm can be used to support active sensing. The tracking information will facilitate the robots to enhance the perceptual processing via dexterous sensor positioning.

Kluwer Academic Publishers (ISBN 1-4020-3388-5) This proceedings volume documents recent cutting-... more Kluwer Academic Publishers (ISBN 1-4020-3388-5) This proceedings volume documents recent cutting-edge developments in multi-robot Systems research. This volume is the result of the Third International workshop on Multi-Robot Systems that was held in March 2005 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. This workshop brought together top researchers working in areas relevant to designing teams of autonomous vehicles, including robots and unmanned ground, air, surface, and undersea vehicles. The workshop focused on the challenging issues of team architectures, vehicle learning and adaptation, heterogeneous group control and cooperation, task selection, dynamic autonomy,

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2005

This work addresses the problem of metrics for multi-robot systems. It is often desirable to comp... more This work addresses the problem of metrics for multi-robot systems. It is often desirable to compare different strategies or algorithms for similar problems, e.g. mapping or localization. Since these are often real time applications, classical criterions like time or space complexity are not very helpful. Several other metrics have been suggested. In this paperformation navigation is used as an example application. Possible metrics are presented and discussed, and two of them are used to exemplarily evaluate the results of several formation experiments. Problems and drawbacks of these metrics are discussed and preconditions for a general metricfor the formation problem are adumbrated. Finally, first steps towards a generic and generally applicable metric are presented by means of simulation experiments.

IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2000

In this paper, we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment with a team of robots.... more In this paper, we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment with a team of robots. As in singlerobot exploration the goal is to minimize the overall exploration time. The key problem to be solved in the context of multiple robots is to choose appropriate target points for the individual robots so that they simultaneously explore different regions of the environment. We present an approach for the coordination of multiple robots, which simultaneously takes into account the cost of reaching a target point and its utility. Whenever a target point is assigned to a specific robot, the utility of the unexplored area visible from this target position is reduced. In this way, different target locations are assigned to the individual robots. We furthermore describe how our algorithm can be extended to situations in which the communication range of the robots is limited. Our technique has been implemented and tested extensively in real-world experiments and simulation runs. The results demonstrate that our technique effectively distributes the robots over the environment and allows them to quickly accomplish their mission.

ABSTRACT The systems “Reconnaissance and Obstacle Surveillance in Unknown Environments (ROSE)”, “... more ABSTRACT The systems “Reconnaissance and Obstacle Surveillance in Unknown Environments (ROSE)”, “Simulated Environment for Real time Robot Operation (SERO)” are software modules which were developed at the Research Institute for Human Engineering. This research program was conducted to develop a human-machine interface capable of controlling one or more mobile robots in a test environment using an interactive mode of operation. One of the major issues was the autonomous operation of a vehicle in an unknown environment equipped with numerous obstacles. ROSE uses ultrasonic devices onboard the vehicle as sensors, generates a world model using statistical methods and transforms the digital map into a topographical map suitable for display in the console. It also contains software to guide the vehicle autonomously through the obstacle field using a real time path planner on the basis of the virtual force field method. The operator can select this topographical map or a visual simulation of the environment

Ieee International Conference on Robotics Intelligent Systems and Signal Processing 2003 Proceedings 2003, 2003

ABSTRACT

In this paper we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment by a team of robots. As... more In this paper we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment by a team of robots. As in single-robot exploration the goal is to minimize the overall exploration time. The key problem to be solved in the context of multiple robots is to choose appropriate target points for the individual robots so that they simultaneously explore different regions of the environment. We present an approach for the coordination of multiple robots which, in contrast to previous approaches, simultaneously takes into account the cost of reaching a target point and its utility. The utility of a target point is given by the size of the unexplored area that a robot can cover with its sensors upon reaching that location. Whenever a target point is assigned to a specific robot, the utility of the unexplored area visible from this target position is reduced for the other robots. This way, a team of multiple robots assigns different target points to the individual robots. The technique has been implemented and tested extensively in real-world experiments and simulation runs. The results given in this paper demonstrate that our coordination technique significantly reduces the exploration time compared to previous approaches.

In this paper we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment by a team of robots. As... more In this paper we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment by a team of robots. As in single-robot exploration the goal is to minimize the overall exploration time. The key problem to be solved in the context of multiple robots is to choose appropriate target points for the individual robots so that they simultaneously explore different regions of the environment. We present an approach for the coordination of multiple robots which, in contrast to previous approaches, simultaneously takes into account the cost of reaching a target point and its utility. The utility of a target point is given by the size of the unexplored area that a robot can cover with its sensors upon reaching that location. Whenever a target point is assigned to a specific robot, the utility of the unexplored area visible from this target position is reduced for the other robots. This way, a team of multiple robots assigns different target points to the individual robots. The technique has been implemented and tested extensively in real-world experiments and simulation runs. The results given in this paper demonstrate that our coordination technique significantly reduces the exploration time compared to previous approaches.

IMPACT OF AUTONOMY IN MULTIROBOT SYSTEMS ON TELEOPERATION PERFORMANCEBoris Trouvain, Hans L. Wolf... more IMPACT OF AUTONOMY IN MULTIROBOT SYSTEMS ON TELEOPERATION PERFORMANCEBoris Trouvain, Hans L. Wolf and Frank E. Schneider ... work has been done on its specific challenges in the domain of exploration, mapping and formation building (Simmons et al ...

Journal of Field Robotics, 2015

Ergonomie und Mensch-Maschine-Systeme, 2008

Die Vernetzte Operationsführung dient der Führung und dem Einsatz von Streitkräften auf der Basis... more Die Vernetzte Operationsführung dient der Führung und dem Einsatz von Streitkräften auf der Basis eines streitkräftegemeinsamen, führungsübergreifenden und interoperablen Kommunikations- und Informationsverbundes. Wesentliche Bestandteile der Vernetzten Operationsführung sind Kommunikations- und Sensornetze. Für den Einsatz von Mehrrobotersystemen ist die Integration in die vernetzte Operationsführung von entscheidender Bedeutung. Als Grundlage für die Integration ist jedoch ein geeignetes Kommunikationsnetz notwendig. Es werden daher zunächst basierend auf dem NATO-Workshop „1st NATO Workshop on short-term realizable (multi-)robot systems in military domains“ die Kommunikationsanforderungen an ein Mehrrobotersystem identifiziert und Schwierigkeiten bei der Umsetzung in einem Kommunikationssystem diskutiert. Anschließend wird mit dem Protokoll WNet ein flexibler Rahmen vorgestellt, um Lösungen für Kommunikationssysteme zu untersuchen, die möglichst viele dieser Anforderungen berücksichtigen. Die zusätzliche oder detailliertere Berücksichtigung von Anforderungen kann dabei durch Erweiterungen des Rahmens vorgenommen werden. WNet ist somit ein experimenteller Protokollrahmen, um unterschiedliche Verfahren zur Kommunikation in Mehrrobotersystemen zu vergleichen. Das Ergebnis dieser Vergleiche soll dann die Grundlage für ein oder mehrere geeignete Kommunikationssysteme für Mehrrobotersysteme bilden, die eine einfache Integration in die vernetzte Operationsführung erlauben.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 2011

ABSTRACT It is generally a problematic task to compare different approaches and methods in the fi... more ABSTRACT It is generally a problematic task to compare different approaches and methods in the field of outdoor robotics [1]. In the majority of cases, results are reported only for a specific robotic system. All tasks are solved in a static and often specially defined environment, making it hard to compare the outcome with results from other research groups, other approaches, and other robots. The commonly used means of “proof by video” or “proof by (one) example” are insufficient for obvious reasons. As one possible solution, robot competitions can be a benchmark for real robot systems [2].

ABSTRACT Gross, R.; Alboul, L.; Melhuish, C.; Witkowski, M.; Prescott, T.J.; Penders, J.

Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 6, 2007

ABSTRACT Surveillance is a typical task in the field of multi robot systems that operate as a sec... more ABSTRACT Surveillance is a typical task in the field of multi robot systems that operate as a security system. This paper is concerned with the special problem of observing expanded objects in such settings. A solution in form of a Viterbi based tracking algorithm is presented. Thus a Maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) filtering technique is applied to perform the tracking process. The mathematical background of the algorithm is proposed. The method uses the robot sensors in form of laser range finders and a motion and observation model of the objects being tracked. The special features of the Viterbi based algorithm can be used to support active sensing. The tracking information will facilitate the robots to enhance the perceptual processing via dexterous sensor positioning.

Kluwer Academic Publishers (ISBN 1-4020-3388-5) This proceedings volume documents recent cutting-... more Kluwer Academic Publishers (ISBN 1-4020-3388-5) This proceedings volume documents recent cutting-edge developments in multi-robot Systems research. This volume is the result of the Third International workshop on Multi-Robot Systems that was held in March 2005 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. This workshop brought together top researchers working in areas relevant to designing teams of autonomous vehicles, including robots and unmanned ground, air, surface, and undersea vehicles. The workshop focused on the challenging issues of team architectures, vehicle learning and adaptation, heterogeneous group control and cooperation, task selection, dynamic autonomy,

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2005

This work addresses the problem of metrics for multi-robot systems. It is often desirable to comp... more This work addresses the problem of metrics for multi-robot systems. It is often desirable to compare different strategies or algorithms for similar problems, e.g. mapping or localization. Since these are often real time applications, classical criterions like time or space complexity are not very helpful. Several other metrics have been suggested. In this paperformation navigation is used as an example application. Possible metrics are presented and discussed, and two of them are used to exemplarily evaluate the results of several formation experiments. Problems and drawbacks of these metrics are discussed and preconditions for a general metricfor the formation problem are adumbrated. Finally, first steps towards a generic and generally applicable metric are presented by means of simulation experiments.

IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2000

In this paper, we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment with a team of robots.... more In this paper, we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment with a team of robots. As in singlerobot exploration the goal is to minimize the overall exploration time. The key problem to be solved in the context of multiple robots is to choose appropriate target points for the individual robots so that they simultaneously explore different regions of the environment. We present an approach for the coordination of multiple robots, which simultaneously takes into account the cost of reaching a target point and its utility. Whenever a target point is assigned to a specific robot, the utility of the unexplored area visible from this target position is reduced. In this way, different target locations are assigned to the individual robots. We furthermore describe how our algorithm can be extended to situations in which the communication range of the robots is limited. Our technique has been implemented and tested extensively in real-world experiments and simulation runs. The results demonstrate that our technique effectively distributes the robots over the environment and allows them to quickly accomplish their mission.

ABSTRACT The systems “Reconnaissance and Obstacle Surveillance in Unknown Environments (ROSE)”, “... more ABSTRACT The systems “Reconnaissance and Obstacle Surveillance in Unknown Environments (ROSE)”, “Simulated Environment for Real time Robot Operation (SERO)” are software modules which were developed at the Research Institute for Human Engineering. This research program was conducted to develop a human-machine interface capable of controlling one or more mobile robots in a test environment using an interactive mode of operation. One of the major issues was the autonomous operation of a vehicle in an unknown environment equipped with numerous obstacles. ROSE uses ultrasonic devices onboard the vehicle as sensors, generates a world model using statistical methods and transforms the digital map into a topographical map suitable for display in the console. It also contains software to guide the vehicle autonomously through the obstacle field using a real time path planner on the basis of the virtual force field method. The operator can select this topographical map or a visual simulation of the environment

Ieee International Conference on Robotics Intelligent Systems and Signal Processing 2003 Proceedings 2003, 2003

ABSTRACT

In this paper we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment by a team of robots. As... more In this paper we consider the problem of exploring an unknown environment by a team of robots. As in single-robot exploration the goal is to minimize the overall exploration time. The key problem to be solved in the context of multiple robots is to choose appropriate target points for the individual robots so that they simultaneously explore different regions of the environment. We present an approach for the coordination of multiple robots which, in contrast to previous approaches, simultaneously takes into account the cost of reaching a target point and its utility. The utility of a target point is given by the size of the unexplored area that a robot can cover with its sensors upon reaching that location. Whenever a target point is assigned to a specific robot, the utility of the unexplored area visible from this target position is reduced for the other robots. This way, a team of multiple robots assigns different target points to the individual robots. The technique has been implemented and tested extensively in real-world experiments and simulation runs. The results given in this paper demonstrate that our coordination technique significantly reduces the exploration time compared to previous approaches.