Team Vacas - Design and Development of Cooperative Ugv System -

Team VaCAS developed a cooperative unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) system for MAGIC 2010 competition. The system includes a cooperative estimation and control strategy, its software, UGVs and the so-called platformand hardware-in-the-loop simulator (PHILS) which allows the performance evaluation of multi-UGV system in a virtual environment. Team VaCAS also constructed outdoor and indoor test areas for June site demonstration. Out of the developments, a cooperative estimation and control strategy, which is based on the central decision making and the decentralized Bayesian estimation and control, enables the UGVs to complete the mission of MAGIC robustly while handling uncertainties inherent and significant in real systems in natural environment. For June site demonstration, three UGVs, each having a different set of drive train and sensors, were developed. The PHILS is a multi-computer multi-monitor system and thus allows the performance evaluation of various subsystems. The developed multi-UGV system was first utilized for June site demonstration using PHILS and its ability and proficiency were demonstrated. The system was then applied to the MAGIC mission in a MAGIC Final like test area consisting of three phases, and its ability to complete the entire MAGIC mission was demonstrated. Further, the compatibility of virtual tests to real tests were demonstrated, and the three real UGVs were cooperated with five simulated UGVs in the same environment.