[Faculty] Fwd: [CSRC.COLLOQUIUM] "Intelligent Robot Teams with Chaotic Motion Planning for Online and Unpredictable Exploration of Uncertain Environments"

[Jose Castillo]

[image: SDSU_CSRC Logo.jpg]



DATE:
*Friday, January 29, 2021*


TITLE:
*Intelligent Robot Teams with Chaotic Motion Planning for Online and
Unpredictable Exploration of Uncertain Environments *

TIME:
*3:30-4:30PM*



LOCATION:
Join Zoom Meeting -   https://SDSU.zoom.us/j/89711086437
<https://sdsu.zoom.us/j/89711086437>


SPEAKER/BIO:

*Dr. Zhara Nili, Mechanical Engineering, San Diego State University*


ABSTRACT:

Surveillance and exploration of adversarial and uncertain environments is a
tedious task. In spaces with limited environmental cues, random-like search
appears to be an effective approach as it allows the agents to perform an
online coverage while avoiding intruders’ attacks. Inducing chaos into the
agent’s controller system makes its navigation unpredictable and accounts
for better scanning coverage. Unlike other random-like motion planning
strategies (e.g., random-walk) which produce nondeterministic paths,
chaos-based search strategies enable generation of deterministic but
unpredictable trajectories. This quality allows the designer to control the
paths and at the same time prevents the intruders from predicting the
agents’ actions. Chaotic motions can be generated using certain nonlinear
dynamical systems; a minute change in the parameters or initial conditions
(ICs) of these systems can result in utterly different trajectories.
Considering wide variety of dynamical systems and their corresponding range
of parameters and ICs, the agents with chaotic path planners will have
infinite number of choices; each influencing their performance and the
unpredictability of their paths differently. For some of these systems,
additional chaos control techniques can significantly improve the
performance. The dynamical system properties are not the only important
consideration in chaotic planners, the algorithm should as well decide
about the method of coordination between the agents while taking into
account the environment conditions (size, level of clutter, …), the agents
characteristics (e.g., maneuverability), and the sensing and communications
constraints. To optimize the swarm performance and realize adaptable,
scalable, and effective search, we need strategies that allow exploring the
trade-off space of different configurations to select the best settings as
well as methods to better control the chaotic trajectories. In this talk,
Dr. Nili will discuss the concepts related to chaotic motion planning, the
trade-off space analysis study, the multi-agent coordination strategies,
and the established techniques to control chaos.

Bio: Dr. Zahra Nili is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering
Department and director of Dynamic Systems and Intelligent Machines Lab at
San Diego State University (SDSU). She holds a Ph.D. from University of
Quebec (École de Technologie Supérieure). Prior to this position, she was
an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering Department at Wichita
State University. Her research interests include autonomy, cooperative
robotics, and robot perception and learning. One area of focus is
multi-agent coordination and nonlinear motion planning for mobile robots
and unmanned air vehicles, with applications in surveillance and
exploration missions. She is also working to establish acoustic perception
technologies for robots essential in realizing effective human-robot
interactions across physical structures and in enabling the agents to
navigate and find occluded targets in dark and cluttered environments. Dr.
Nili’s research has received support from NASA and AFRL/RI information
institute.


Host: Satchi Venkataraman

Note: Videos of previous colloquium talks can be seen on the CSRC website
in the colloquium archive section or on the CSRC YouTube page here
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN0ZEztlmyDqG2pm-Rle_Eg/feed>.





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