Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 4

The Fifth International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS 2000) dealt with new strategies to realize complex, modular, robust, and fault-tolerant robotic systems. Technologies, algorithms, and system architectures for distributed autonomous robotic systems were presented and discussed during the meeting. DARS 2000 was truly an international event, with participants represent­ ing eleven countries from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. All of the papers in this volume were presented at DARS 2000, and were selected on the basis of peer re­ views to ensure quality and relevance. These papers have the common goal of con­ tributing solutions to realize robust and intelligent multirobot systems. The topics of the symposium address a wide range of issues that are important in the development of decentralized robotic systems. These topics include architec­ tures, communication, biological inspirations, reconfigurable robots, localization, exploration and mapping, distributed sensing, multi robot motion coordination, tar­ get assignment and tracking, multirobot learning, and cooperative object transport. DARS clearly requires a broad area of interdisciplinary technologies related not only to robotics and computer engineering, but also to biology and psychology. The DARS symposium is the leading established conference on distributed au­ tonomous systems. The First, Second, and Third International Symposia on Distrib­ uted Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS '92, DARS '94, and DARS '96) were held at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Saitama, Japan.

1: Introduction.- Current State of the Art in Distributed Autonomous Mobile Robotics.- 2: Architectures and Development Environments.- Control Architecture for an Underwater Robot Society.- Ayllu: Distributed Port-arbitrated Behavior-based Control.- An Architecture for Reactive Cooperation of Mobile Distributed Robots.- A Framework for Distributed Simulation of Multirobot Systems: The VLAB Experience.- Robots that Cooperatively Enhance Their Plans.- 3: Communication and Knowledge Sharing.- Performance Evaluation of Autonomous Knowledge Acquisition and Sharing by Intelligent Data Carriers System.- Collective Grounded Representations for Robots.- Effects of Static and Dynamic Variety in the Character of Robots on Group Intelligence of Multi-robot System.- Communication Fault Tolerance in Distributed Robotic Systems.- 4: Biological Inspirations.- Blazing a Trail: Insect-inspired Resource Transportation by a Robot Team.- Artificial Emotion and Social Robotics.- The Use of Biologically-Inspired Rules to Control a Collective Robotic Arm.- 5: Reconfigurable Robots.- Micro Self-Reconfigurable Robotic System using Shape Memory Alloy.- Autonomous and Self-Sufficient CONRO Modules for Reconfigurable Robots.- Motion Planning for a Modular Self-Reconfiguring Robotic System.- 6: Localization.- Distributed Multi-Robot Localization.- Distance Measurement in Multi-Robot Systems based on Time Shared Scheduling.- Relative Position Localizing System for Multiple Autonomous Mobile Robots in Distributed Robotic System.- Development of a Multiple Mobile Robot System Controlled by a Human -- Realization of Object Command Level.- 7: Exploration, Mapping, and Model Acquisition.- Autonomous Mobile Robots and Distributed Exploratory Missions.- Terrain Model Acquisition by Mobile Robot Teams and n-Connectivity.- Graph-Based Exploration using Multiple Robots.- Landmark-based Matching Algorithm for Cooperative Mapping by Autonomous Robots.- Comparing Distributed Exploration Strategies with Simulated and Real Autonomous Robots.- 8: Distributed Sensing.- Distributed Sensing and Data Collection via Broken Ad Hoc Wireless Connected Networks of Mobile Robots.- Experiments and Results in Multimodal, Distributed, Robotic Perception.- Cooperative Sentry Vehicles and Differential GPS Leapfrog.- 9: Multi-Robot Motion Coordination and Tracking.- Motion Coordination in Formations of Multiple Mobile Robots Using a Potential Field Approach.- Fly Spy: Lightweight Localization and Target Tracking for Cooperating Air and Ground Robots.- Dynamic Robot-Target Assignment -- Dependence of Recovering from Breakdowns on the Speed of the Selection Process.- Fuzzy Control of Distance and Motion Tracking Applied to Cooperative Autonomous Robots.- Broadcast of Local Eligibility for Multi-Target Observation.- A Communication-Free Behavior for Docking Mobile Robots.- 10: Multi-Robot Learning.- On Behavior Classification in Adversarial Environments.- Learning-Based Task Allocation in Decentralized Multirobot System.- Multi-Robot Learning in a Cooperative Observation Task.- Ultra-Fast Neural Network Training for Robot Learning from Uncertain Data.- 11: Cooperative Object Transport.- Object Transport Using Multiple Mobile Robots With Pin Joint Endeffectors.- Distributed Motion Generation for Two Omni-Directional Robots Carrying a Ladder.- Experimental Manufacturing of Object Transfer System “Magic Carpet” Consisting of Actuator Array with Autonomous Decentralized Control.- A Control Method of a Multiple Non-holonomic Robot System for Cooperative Object Transportation.- Structural Characteristics of Intelligence and Embodiment in Two-Mobile Robots System.- 12: Related Research Topics.- From Distributed Robot Perception to Human Topology: A Learning Model.- Reactive Sensor Networks.- Cooperation of Multiple Robots to Solve Maze Tasks.- Localizing a Wireless Node in a Multi-Agent System using Kalman Filtering.- Learning Cooperation from Human-Robot Interaction.- Susceptibility of Swarm Control Algorithms to Agent Failure.- The MICRobES Project, an Experimental Approach towards “Open Collective Robotics”.- Dynamic Task Selection: A Simple Structure for Multirobot system.- Author Index.