Controlling Wild Bodies Using Discrete Transition Systems

People

Leonardo Bobadilla, Oscar Sanchez, Justin Czarnowski, Katrina Goodman, Steve LaValle

Motivation

In everyday life we see examples of independently moving bodies that are gracefully corralled into behaving in a prescribed way. Examples can be found in turnstiles in subway systems, "doggie door" for pets and squirrel traps. These scenarios involve numerous bodies moving together in one environment following two principles: We want to solve tasks such as navigation, patrolling, coverage, herding, and separating into groups. Our approach is to divide the workspace of the bodies into a finite set of regions . Bodies are constrained to move within a region, but are able to transition to another region by the use of a gate. For more details, you can check our paper or poster summary.

Single Body

To control bodies we can use static gates, which are fixed in advance and allow one-way motions from region to region, or controllable gates, that based on sensor feedback allow the modes to be externally controlled during execution.

Patrolling

Sequencing

Programmable Coverage

Multiple Bodies



Navigation of Multiple Bodies

Group splitting and coverage


Extentions and Variations:Pliant Gates

The gates have internal modes that affect how bodies are permitted to transition between regions and the modes may passively change via contact with bodies.

Two-Way Revolving Door

Four-Way Revolving Door

Region Separation

Extentions and Variations:Non Determinism



Multiple Agent Patrolling

50 bodies

Extentions and Variations:Other Platforms



Hexbug

10 Hexbugs

Simulations



1 body

2 bodies