Coordinating Teams of Robots€¦ · Global Warming – temperature trends 1950 - 2014 Source: © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 28 Impacts

Nora Ayanian

University of Southern California

November 29, 2016

Challenges in multi-robot coordination, and how I came to solving them.

Coordinating Teams of Robots

2

Agenda

My research vision

My research problem

How I got here

3

My Research Vision

4

The Multiagent Revolution

Transportatio

n

Google

ultraglobalprt.com

Energy

KiteGen

Realimage/Alamy

Supply Chain

kuka-systems.com

wsj.com

kivasystems.com

“The Daily Conversation

vecna.com

InTouch Health

Healthcare

ETH

Zurich

5

Manufacturing Warehousing Defense Forces

TELEOPERATEDSTRUCTURED ENVIRONMENTS

HAND

TRAINEDLIMITED CAPABILITIES

ENGINEERED INTERACTIONS

Emergency Response

futuristspeaker.com

Automated Delivery

goprouk.org

Self-Driving Vehicles

google

Modular Robot Surgery

ETH

Zurich

Many robots, many tasks

6Tracey Saxby, Integration and Application Network, UM Center for Environmental Science (ian.umces.edu/imagelibrary/)

• Unified, end-to-end process that starts with a high level specification for a group task and

delivers code for individual robots in the team

• Provably correct algorithms that help establish the science of multi-robot coordination

• Theoretical basis for coherent unifying framework of multi-robot coordination

Research Vision






Research Vision






Research Vision

9

Multi-group

Resource Management

Human-RobotNatural

Language

Task Allocation

Distributed Navigation

Independent Goals

Group Navigation

Structure Distributed

HeterogeneousFormation

Control

PlanningSpecification Coordination Feedback Control

Configuration Space

Modeling

Multirobot Path

Planning

Partially Known

Environments

High-Level

10

Fight and Contain

Forest Fires

Search for Survivors in a

Collapsed Building

Keep First Responders

out of Harm’s Way

What can teams of robots potentially do?

11

My Research Problem

12

13

14

Benefits of

Diversity: Conflict leads to

higher-quality

solutions

15

Communication

Perception

Mobility

Robots are nothing like

humans!

…

16

Use everyday

technology to

modify human

capabilities

17

Can Humans Coordinate Under Robot-like Conditions?

What

robots

see

The playing field

18

On the playing field

Off the playing field

19

Can Humans Coordinate Under Robot-like Conditions?

What

robots

see

The playing field

20

With only local sensing…

8x

21

• What transferrable skills can we learn?

• Are traits inherent?

• How is a consensus reached?

• How much diversity is necessary?

SignalingLocalization

Questions we would like to answer

22

How Did I Get Here?

2301

My career timeline

02 03 04 05 06

2000 2002 2005 2011 2013 Present

Enter

UniversityI knew I wanted to be

an engineer and work

in industry.

First InternshipI realized industry

wasn’t for me, and

started doing

research.

Ph.D. ProgramI knew I wanted to go

much deeper, so I

started a Ph.D. in

robotics.

Start PostdocI thought about

industry some more,

but needed more time

and experience.

Start at USCI decided that I

needed to do the

research I wanted to

do, so academia was

the right place.

TodayI have a diverse lab,

do a lot of outreach,

and enjoy creating

technology to tackle

global probems.

24

My lab group:2016

Tanuja Ganu

Co-Founder & CTO, DataGlen

29th November 2016

Enabling Clean and Cheap Energy Through IoE

Bits and Joules

Speaker head

shot Here

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 27

Global Warming – temperature trends 1950 - 2014

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming#Etymology


Impacts of Global Warming – A few examples

Lost Habitats Increase in tropical diseasesForest fires

Source: https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/impacts/effects/index.html


Greenhouse Effect – Cause of Global Warming

Source: http://www.tutorvista.com/english/global-warming-causes


Maximise renewable

energy sourcesAvoid energy wastage

Solution Strategy

Technology Overview


From Internet of Computers to Internet of Everything


Inspired by Brain Architecture


Hierarchical IoE systems

Data Collection & Actuation

Data Aggregation & Edge

Analytics

UX, Analytics & Optimisation


IoE Neocortex - Time series Analysis

Sources: http://alfa.di.uminho.pt/~castro/stat/, http://www.simafore.com/time-series-forecasting-training-intro, http://www.cs.ucr.edu/%7Eeamonn/tutorials.html

Novelty Detection

Clustering

Forecasting

Pattern Discovery

http://alfa.di.uminho.pt/~castro/stat/

http://www.simafore.com/time-series-forecasting-training-intro

http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~eamonn/tutorials.html

Renewable Energy Integration


Challenges with Solar Energy

Intermittent- integrating with power grids can be a challenge

Difficult to monitor continuously using human resources

In case of failures, real-time automatic action is required


Solar Plant Management

1

2

3

Generation Prediction

Identifying failures

Cleaning Recommendations


Generation Prediction

Current Time


Identifying Failures


Determining Cleaning Schedule

▸ Soiling losses reduce efficiency of the plant by ~5-10%

Energy Conservation


Electricity Wastage by electrical appliances


SocketWatch

Learning PhaseUSPTO Issued Patent 9,465,376


Catching a gasket leakage

Before After

Monitoring Phase

My Story


My Story

ML & Optimisation

2009

IISc

Tinkering with things

1982

Computer Science

2000

Smarter Energy &

Innovation

2011

Technocommercials

2015

Software Engg.

First Job

2004


Making The World Better!


Requires Diverse Skills and Interdisciplinary Team


Putting together a puzzle


Thank You!

Documents

Coordinating Teams of Robots€¦ · Global Warming – temperature trends 1950 - 2014 Source: © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 28 Impacts