• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.1047-1055
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• 2009

Since nuclear and chemical materials could damage people and disturb battlefield missions in a wide region, nuclear/chemical reconnaissance systems utilizing multiple mobile robots are highly desirable for rapid and safe reconnaissance. In this paper, we design a nuclear/chemical reconnaissance system including mobile robots. Also we propose time-efficient trajectory planning algorithms using grid coverage and contour finding methods for reconnaissance operation. For grid coverage, we performed in analysis on time consumption for various trajectory patterns generated by straight lines and arcs. We proposed BCF (Bounded Contour Finding) and BCFEP (Bounded Contour Finding with Ellipse Prediction) algorithms for contour finding. With these grid coverage and contour finding algorithms, we suggest trajectory planning algorithms for single, two or four mobile robots. Various simulations reveal that the proposed algorithms improve time-efficiency in nuclear/chemical reconnaissance missions in the given area. Also we conduct basic experiments using a commercial mobile robot and verify the time efficiency of the proposed contour finding algorithms.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.181-193
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• 2009

This paper presents a framework for controlling mobile multiple robots connected by communication networks. This framework provides novel methods to control coordinated systems using mobile agents. The combination of the mobile agent and mobile multiple robots opens a new horizon of efficient use of mobile robot resources. Instead of physical movement of multiple robots, mobile software agents can migrate from one robot to another so that they can minimize energy consumption in aggregation. The imaginary application is making "carts," such as found in large airports, intelligent. Travelers pick up carts at designated points but leave them arbitrary places. It is a considerable task to re-collect them. It is, therefore, desirable that intelligent carts (intelligent robots) draw themselves together automatically. Simple implementation may be making each cart has a designated assembly point, and when they are free, automatically return to those points. It is easy to implement, but some carts have to travel very long way back to their own assembly point, even though it is located close to some other assembly points. It consumes too much unnecessary energy so that the carts have to have expensive batteries. In order to ameliorate the situation, we employ mobile software agents to locate robots scattered in a field, e.g. an airport, and make them autonomously determine their moving behaviors by using a clustering algorithm based on the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). ACO is the swarm intelligence-based methods, and a multi-agent system that exploit artificial stigmergy for the solution of combinatorial optimization problems. Preliminary experiments have provided a favorable result. In this paper, we focus on the implementation of the controlling mechanism of the multi-robots using the mobile agents.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1609-1614
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• 2003

This paper presents a new method driving multiple robots to their goal position without collision. To consider the movement of the robots in a work area, we adopt the concept of avoidability measure. To implement the concept in collision avoidance of multiple robots, relative distance between the robots is proposed. The relative distance is a virtual distance between robots indicating the threat of collision between the robots. Based on the relative distance, the method calculates repulsive force against a robot from the other robots. Also, attractive force toward the goal position is calculated in terms of the relative distance. The proposed method is simulated for several cases. The results show that the proposed method steers robots to open space anticipating the approach of other robots. The proposed method works as a local collision-free motion coordination method in conjunction with higher level of task planning and path planning method for multiple robots to do a collaborative job.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.59 no.11
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• pp.2103-2107
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• 2010

This paper deals with the recognition of multiple mobile robots equipped with RFID tag. In the case that the number of robots recognized by each RFID reader is larger than that of allocated slots, the clashing recognition occurs. And, in the case that the total number of robots recognized by all RFID reader is larger than that of real robots, the repetitious recognition occurs. We employ the dynamic frame slot allocation by using the ALOHA algorithm to prevent the clashing recognition and estimate the number of robots by using the received signal strength indication to prevent the repetitious recognition. The numerical experiment shows the reliability and the efficiency of the proposed method.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2020

In situations where mobile robots are operated either by autonomous systems or human operators, such as smart factories, priority-based teleoperation is crucial for the multiple operators with different priority to take over the right of the robot control without conflict. This paper proposes a priority-based teleoperation system for multiple operators to control the robots. This paper also introduces an efficient joystick-based robot control command generation algorithm for differential-drive mobile robots. The proposed system is implemented with ROS (Robot Operating System) and embedded control boards, and is applied to Pioneer 3AT mobile robot platform. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed joystick control command algorithm and the priority-based control input selection.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.720-723
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• 1997

This paper presents a cooperative control method for multiple robots. This method is based on local sensors. The proposed method integrates all information obtained by local perception through a set of sensors and generates commands without logical conflicts in designing control logic. To control multiple robots effectively, a global control strategy is proposed. These methods are constructed by using AND/OR logic and transition firing sequences in Petri nets. To evaluate these methods, the object-searching task is introduced. This task is to search an object like a box by two robots and consists of two sub-tasks, i.e., a wall tracking task and a robot tracking task. Simulation results for the object-searching task and the wall tracking task are presented to show the effectiveness of the method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.291-300
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• 2008

In this paper power system and drive-train for omni-directional autonomous mobile robots with multiple energy storage units are presented. Because in proposed system, which is implemented in soccer robots, the ability of power flow control from of multiple separated energy storage units and speed control for each motor are combined, these robots can be derived by more than one power source. This capability, allow robot to diversify its energy source by employing hybrid power sources. In this research Lithium ion polymer batteries have been used for main and auxiliary energy storage units because of their high power and energy densities. And to protect them against deep discharge, over current and short circuit, a protection circuit was designed. The other parts of our robot power system are DC-DC converters and kicker circuit. The simulation and experimental results show proposed scheme and extracted equations are valid and energy management and speed control can be achieved properly using this method. The filed experiments show robot mobility functions to perform the requested motion is enough and it has a high maneuverability in the field.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.861-866
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• 2013

This paper presents the development of a racing game by controlling multiple smartphones based on ad hoc communication. The proposed racing game by the smartphone-based control interface does not require any specific game console or remote controller. Thus, any multiple users who have smartphones are able to play the game in a monitor at the same time. In addition, the developed game is applicable to actual mobile robots in cases where the positions of all robots are measured, since its game unit is a mobile robot model with a differential drive. An experimental result shows that the racing game in a PC can be realized by the proposed communication interface through four iPhones based on acceleration sensors.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.648-651
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• 1997

This paper proposes methods for the cooperative control of multiple mobile robots and constructs a robotic soccer system in which the cooperation will be implemented as a pass play of two robots. To play a soccer game, elementary actions such as shooting and moving have been designed, and Q-learning, which is one of the popular methods for reinforcement learning, is used to determine what actions to take. Through simulation, learning is successful in case of deliberate initial arrangements of ball and robots, thereby cooperative work can be accomplished.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.164-169
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• 1998

Complex "lifelike" behaviors are composed of local interactions of individuals under fundamental rules of artificial life. In this paper, fundamental rules for cooperative group behaviors, "flocking" and "arrangement", of multiple autonomous mobile robots are represented by a small number of fuzzy rules. Fuzzy rules in Sugeno type and their related paramenters are automatically generated from clustering input-output data obtained from the algorithms the group behaviors. Simulations demonstrate the fuzzy rules successfully realize group intelligence of mobile robots.