1. 1 Robot Networking Greg McChesney Texas Tech University Greg.mcchesney@ttu.edu Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots

2. A networked robot? Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots2

3. Project Description  Create a communication layer for the robots to interact with each other  Communication layer will handle noise and lag  Utilize communication layer to share information and select team roles Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots3

4. Expected results  Communication layer  Team selection algorithm  Both items should be close to real time  API to communication layer so other modules can pass data. Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots4

5. Communication Layer  Robot Discovery  Leader Selection  Role Assignment/Leader directed communication  Model Updates  Guaranteed (TCP) and nonguaranteed (Multicasting) Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots5

6. Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots6 Matt David Alice Discovery

7. Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots7 Matt David Alice

8. Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots8 Matt David Alice

9. Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots9 Matt David Alice Leader Selection

10. Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots10 Matt David Alice Role Assignment

11. Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots11 Matt David Alice Model Updates

12. Experimental Setup  Creating Java interface which will allow for sending and receiving data.  The underlying class handles all communication  Testing using multiple “robots” on various hosts Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots12

13. Current Status  Robot Discovery Agents automatically find each other  Threaded Input and Output Allows for simultaneous sending and receiving Threads sleep when not in use to prevent CPU hogging  Team Leader Selection Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots13

14. Areas still being researched  Role Assignment Create messages to notify robot of its new mission  Model Sharing Share data about the world without bringing down the network  API So other applications can share too. Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots14

15. Conclusions  Communication layer will provide easy method for inter-robot communication  Provides guaranteed and nonguaranteed communication options.  Built-in network control, to prevent overloading the network Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots15

16. Future Work  Improve leader selection algorithm  Add backup leader, to provide redundancy  Offload model, built API for model updating Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots16

17. Questions? Apr 21, 2009 CS5331: Autonomous Mobile Robots17