Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems

As a new strategy to realize the goal of flexible, robust, fault-tolerant robotic systems, the distributed autonomous approach has quickly established itself as one of the fastest growing fields in robotics. This book is one of the first to devote itself solely to this exciting area of research, covering such topics as self-organization, communication and coordination, multi-robot manipulation and control, distributed system design, distributed sensing, intelligent manufacturing systems, and group behavior. The fundamental technologies and system architectures of distributed autonomous robotic systems are expounded in detail, along with the latest research findings. This book should prove indispensable not only to those involved with robotic engineering but also to those in the fields of artificial intelligence, self-organizing systems, and coordinated control.

1: Introduction.- Trends of Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems.- Manufacturing in the Future - Some Topics of IMS -.- 2: Distributed System Design.- Hierarchical Control Architecture with Learning and Adaptation Ability for Cellular Robotic System.- Optimization of the Distributed Systems by Autonomous Cooperation - Distributed Maximum Principle -.- Fault-Tolerance and Error Recovery in an Autonomous Robot with Distributed Controlled Components.- A Human Interface for Interacting with and Monitoring the Multi-Agent Robotic System.- 3: Distributed Sensing.- Real Time Robot Tracking System with Two Independent Lasers.- Fusing Image Information on the Basis of the Analytic Hierarchy Process.- 4: Distributed Planning and Control.- Rule Generation and Generalization by Inductive Decision Tree and Reinforcement Learning.- Fusion Strategy for Time Series Prediction and Knowledge based Reasoning for Intelligent Communication.- On a Deadlock-free Characteristic of the On-line and Decentralized Path-planning for Multiple Automata.- Distributed Strategy-making Method in Multiple Mobile Robot System.- Fully Distributed Traffic Regulation and Control for Multiple Autonomous Mobile Robots Operating in Discrete Space.- 5: Cooperative Operation.- A Medium Access Protocol (CSMA/CD-W) Supporting Wireless Inter-Robot Communication in Distributed Robotic Systems.- The Design of Communication Network for Dynamically Reconfigurable Robotic System.- A Multi Agent Distributed Host to Host to Robot Real-Time Communication Environment.- Coordinating Multiple Mobile Robots Through Local Inter-Robot Communication.- Negotiation Method for Collaborating Team Organization among Multiple Robots.- Resource Sharing in Distributed Robotic Systems based on A Wireless Medium Access Protocol (CSMA/CD-W).- An Experimental Realization of Cooperative Behavior of Multi-Robot System.- 6: Self-Organization.- Self Organization of a Mechanical System.- Evolutional Self-organization of Distributed Autonomous Systems.- Intention Model and Coordination for Collective Behavior in Group Robotic System.- High-order Strictly Local Swarms.- Self-Organization of an Uniformly Distributed Visuo-Motor Map through Controlling the Spatial Variation.- 7: Multi-Robot Behavior.- Behavior Control of Insects by Artificial Electrical Stimulation.- Find Path Problem of Autonomous Robots by Vibrating Potential Method.- Mutual-Entrainment-Based Communication Field in Distributed Autonomous Robotic System - Autonomous coordinative control in unpredictable environment -.- Cooperative Behavior of Parent-Children Type Mobile Robots.- Driving and Confinement of A Group in A Small Space.- 8: Coordinated Control.- Cooperative System between a Position-controlled Robot and a Crane with Three Wires.- Manipulability Indices in Multi-wire Driven Mechanisms.- Cooperating Multiple Behavior-Based Robots for Object Manipulation - System and Cooperation Strategy -.- Dynamically Reconfigurable Robotic System - Assembly of New Type Cells as a Dual-Peg-in-Hole Problem -.