Multirobot Coordination: Methods and Applications

Current approaches to multirobot coordination are very task specific, and not portable from one application to another or from one robotic platform to another. This means using a multirobot system requires specialized code and an expert to program and maintain it. My research focuses on developing a theoretical basis for a coherent, unifying framework of distributed multirobot coordination. In my lab, we develop end-to-end processes that start with a high level specification for a group task and deliver code for the individual robots in the team. Ideally, this results in a science of multirobot coordination, where solutions can easily be ported from one task or platform to another. This opens the user base for multirobot systems, and will make it possible to use them for all sorts of new applications.
In this talk, I will present a few of the projects we are working on in my lab. Imagine a free online zoo, where you can see animals in their natural habitat in 3D, and even manipulate the animal to gain a better understanding of its biomechanics. Or put yourself in a football game as one of the players with a full 3D immersive experience thanks to a team of UAVs capturing footage in 3D from all angles. Or even better, imagine a movie coming to life in actual 3D, using small UAVs as each pixel in the image. All of these will be within reach once we establish this science for multirobot coordination.

About the speaker:

Nora Ayanian is a Gabilan Assistant Professor of Computer Science at University of Southern California. She won the Best Student Paper Award at ICRA 2008 for her work on constrained multirobot control. In 2013 she was named one of IEEE Intelligent Systems “AI’s 10 to watch” and in 2014 was named to NerdScholar’s “40 Under 40: Professors who Inspire.” In 2015, she was honored as one of the inaugural Mic 50, Mic.com’s list of 50 influential young people. Ayanian is a co-founder and current co-chair of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee on Multi-Robot Systems, and co-produced the first ICRA trailer in 2015.