Maxelbot Trilateration Project
Directors:
William M. Spears and
Diana F. Spears.
Computer Science Department
Engineering Building
Laramie, WY 82071
{wspears,dspears} arobase cs.uwyo.edu
Phone: 307.766.5429 or 307.766.5485
Team Members
Faculty: William M. Spears (CS),
Diana F. Spears (CS), David R. Thayer (Physics), Jerry Hamann (ECE).
Current Students: Suranga Hettiarachchi,
Dimitri Zarzhitsky, Caleb Speiser, and Paul Maxim
Outside Videos
Here are some outdoor videos. In all videos there is no global controller
what-so-ever. This means there are no hidden beacons, GPS units,
over-head cameras, etc. There is no pre-programmed environmental
knowledge. There is no central CPU. The system is fully distributed
and all computation is done on a mere 24Kb of RAM per robot. We
are testing the ability of trilateration to work in real-world
outdoor conditions, at a quite reasonable rate of speed! We hope
you enjoy our "swarm death metal" music videos. Thanks to Paul
Maxim, Suranga Hettiarachchi,
Tom Kunkel, and Derek Green.
The leader has an obstacle avoidance module!
The leader is RC controlled. The followers are using a version of AP.
Lengthy video of New Maxelbots moving outside at UW!
New Maxelbots moving outside at UW!
Four Maxelbots moving outside at UW!
New Maxelbots! The Rise of the Machines
A long sweep sequence with three Maxelbots moving outside at UW!
Three Maxelbots moving in an L configuration outside at UW!
Three Maxelbots moving in a linear configuration outside at UW!
Current Work
Suranga Hettiarachchi has just completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science.
A part of his thesis centers on building an Obstacle Avoidance Module
for our Maxelbots, and merging this with our trilateration framework.
Suranga's Ph.D. Thesis
Papers and Slide Presentations of the Maxelbot Project.
Quad Chart of our work.
Executive Summary of our work.
Here is our most recent draft of a paper.
Draft Paper
Short Form of Draft Paper
Here is one published paper with some results, as well as slides.
Swarm Robotics Workshop Paper
The Slides for the Talk at the Workshop (given by Paul Maxim)
Lab Videos
Here are some videos. In all videos there is no global controller
what-so-ever. This means there are no hidden beacons, GPS units,
over-head cameras, etc. There is no pre-programmed environmental
knowledge. There is no central CPU. The system is fully distributed
and all computation is done on a mere 24Kb of RAM per robot.
Baby Pulled to Safety Demonstration
Formation Goal Demonstration
Formation Goal Recovery Demonstration
Chemical Plume Tracing Demonstration
Reports
Tom Kunkel and Paul Maxim have greatly extended Rod's early work.
Tom Kunkel's Hardware Report
Tom Kunkel's Plan B Masters Thesis
Paul Maxim's Communication Protocol Report
Paul Maxim's Manchester Encoding Report
Group Progress Report
The Beginning - Our Approach to Trilateration
Rod Heil's thesis summarizes the beginning of our trilateration
project. It includes the basics of trilateration, basic equations,
analysis of error, and a first attempt in hardware. Rod then discusses
the parabolic cones we use, and shows how we can use everything to
do multirobot trilateration. Verilog code is given in an Appendix.
Rod Heil's Masters Thesis
Rod Heil's Simulator
Instructions for Rod Heil's Simulator
