{"403861":{"#nid":"403861","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Controlling swarms of robots with a finger","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EUsing a smart tablet and a red beam of light, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created a system that allows people to control a fleet of robots with the swipe of a finger. A person taps the tablet to control where the beam of light appears on a floor. The swarm robots then roll toward the illumination, constantly communicating with each other and deciding how to evenly cover the lit area. When the person swipes the tablet to drag the light across the floor, the robots follow. If the operator puts two fingers in different locations on the tablet, the machines will split into teams and repeat the process.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe new Georgia Tech algorithm that fuels this system demonstrates the potential of easily controlling large teams of robots, which is relevant in manufacturing, agriculture and disaster areas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s not possible for a person to control a thousand or a million robots by individually programming each one where to go,\u201d said Magnus Egerstedt, Schlumberger Professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. \u201cInstead, the operator controls an area that needs to be explored. Then the robots work together to determine the best ways to accomplish the job.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEgerstedt envisions a scenario in which an operator sends a large fleet of machines into a specific area of a tsunami-ravaged region. The robots could search for survivors, dividing themselves into equal sections. If some machines were suddenly needed in a new area, a single person could quickly redeploy them.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia Tech model is different from many other robotic coverage algorithms because it\u2019s not static. It\u2019s flexible enough to allow robots to \u201cchange their minds\u201d effectively, rather than just performing the single job they\u2019re programmed to do.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe field of swarm robotics gets difficult when you expect teams of robots to be as dynamic and adaptive as humans,\u201d Egerstedt explained. \u201cPeople can quickly adapt to changing circumstances, make new decisions and act. Robots typically can\u2019t. It\u2019s hard for them to talk and form plans when everything is changing around them.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the Georgia Tech demonstration, each robot is constantly measuring how much light is in its local \u201cneighborhood.\u201d It\u2019s also chatting with its neighbor. When there\u2019s too much light in its area, the robot moves away so that another can steal some of its light.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe robots are working together to make sure that each one has the same amount of light in its own area,\u201d said Egerstedt.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe tablet-based control system has one final benefit: it was designed with everyone in mind. Anyone can control the robots, even if they don\u2019t have a background in robotics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIn the future, farmers could send machines into their fields to inspect the crops,\u201d said Georgia Tech Ph.D. candidate Yancy Diaz-Mercado. \u201cWorkers on manufacturing floors could direct robots to one side of the warehouse to collect items, then quickly direct them to another area if the need changes.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA paper about the control system, \u201cMulti-Robot Control Using Time-Varying Density Functions,\u201d was \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ieeexplore.ieee.org\/xpl\/articleDetails.jsp%3Ftp=%26arnumber=7050337%26ranges%3D2014_2015_p_Publication_Year%26matchBoolean%3Dtrue%26queryText%3Degerstedt\u0022\u003Erecently published\u003C\/a\u003E in the IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis material is based upon work supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Award No. FA9550-13-1-0029. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the AFOSR.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EUsing a smart tablet and a red beam of light, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created a system that allows people to control a fleet of robots with the swipe of a finger.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"System allows human to control robots with finger and beams of light."}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2015-05-12 08:56:32","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:17","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-05-12T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-05-12T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"403841":{"id":"403841","type":"image","title":"Tablet and robot system","body":null,"created":"1449252000","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:00:00","changed":"1475895127","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:07","alt":"Tablet and robot system","file":{"fid":"75983","name":"screen_shot_2015-05-11_at_10.28.44_am.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/screen_shot_2015-05-11_at_10.28.44_am.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/screen_shot_2015-05-11_at_10.28.44_am.png","mime":"image\/png","size":862523,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/screen_shot_2015-05-11_at_10.28.44_am.png?itok=sWkKcXia"}},"348951":{"id":"348951","type":"image","title":"Swarm robotics - Magnus Egerstedt","body":null,"created":"1449245682","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:14:42","changed":"1475895073","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:13","alt":"Swarm robotics - Magnus Egerstedt","file":{"fid":"201005","name":"swarm-robots-cover.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/swarm-robots-cover_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/swarm-robots-cover_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1494043,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/swarm-robots-cover_0.jpg?itok=4A1MjMho"}}},"media_ids":["403841","348951"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/ieeexplore.ieee.org\/xpl\/articleDetails.jsp%3Ftp=%26arnumber=7050337%26ranges%3D2014_2015_p_Publication_Year%26matchBoolean%3Dtrue%26queryText%3Degerstedt","title":"Read the study"},{"url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/edit?video_id=gsNHJwA7V-U\u0026video_referrer=watch","title":"See a video demo"},{"url":"http:\/\/gritslab.gatech.edu\/home\/","title":"GRITS Lab"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"11528","name":"Magnus Egerstedt"},{"id":"1356","name":"robot"},{"id":"169016","name":"swarm robotics"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003ENational Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-2966\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}