|New reactive behaviors that implement formations in multi-robot teams are presented and evaluated. The formation behaviors are integrated with other navigational behaviors to enable a robotic team to reach navigational goals, avoid hazards and simultaneously remain in formation. The behaviors are implemented in simulation, on robots in the laboratory and aboard DARPA's HMMWV-based Unmanned Gro...

The recent upsurge in interest in autonomous robots for combat applications has focused considerable attention on several of the obvious technical issues (e.g, target recognition, autonomous navigation, route planning). However, several technical issues exist which remain unapproached and, in some cases, even unacknowledged by the robotics community. This paper explores three such issues: (1) r...

We summarize some current trends in autonomous robot software systems design and point out some of their characteristics, such as the chasm between analytical and computational models, and the gap between safety critical and besteffort engineering practices. We call for a coherent scientific foundation for autonomous robot software systems design, and we discuss a few key demands on such a foun...

The recent upsurge in interest in autonomous robots for combat applications has focused considerable attention on several of the obvious technical issues (e.g, target recognition, autonomous navigation, route planning). However, several technical issues exist which remain unapproached and, in some cases, even unacknowledged by the robotics community. This paper explores three such issues: (1) r...

A nonlinear adaptive trajectory tracking design for autonomous mobile robot and its practical implementation are presented in this paper. This approach can be applied to generate trajectory tracking control commands for autonomous mobile robot tracking predefined trajectories. The design objective is to specify one nonlinear controller with a parameter adaptive law that satisfies the adaptive H...

Autonomous robots hold the possibility of performing a variety of assistive tasks in intelligent environments. However, widespread use of robot assistants in these environments requires ease of use by individuals who are generally not skilled robot operators. In this paper we present a method of training robots that bridges the gap between user programming of a robot and autonomous learning of ...

The implementation of high-performance robot controllers for complex control tasks such as playing autonomous robot soccer is tedious, errorprone, and a never ending programming task. In this paper we propose programmers to write autonomous controllers that optimize and automatically adapt themselves to changing circumstances of task execution using explicit perception, dynamics and action mode...