AIBO Common World Model

Thomas JellemaStephan KempkesEmanuele VenneriRob Verkuylen

Introduction Started in 1980’s

Not too many practical applications

Testbeds Foraging and Coverage Multi-target Observation Box pushing and object transportation Exploration and flocking

Introduction

Multi-Robot Global task which cannot be achieved

by a single robot Higher performance by using multiple

robots Multi-Robot vs. Multi Agents

Real environment (uncertainty)

Taxonomy

Cooperative

Aware Unaware

Strongly coordinated Weakly coordinated Not coordinated

Strongly centralized Weakly centralized Distributed

Cooperation

Taxonomy

Cooperative

Aware Unaware

Strongly coordinated Weakly coordinated Not coordinated

Strongly centralized Weakly centralized Distributed

Knowledge

• No knowledge of other robots, no communication

• Communication possible through stigmergy

• Mainly used for foraging or box pushing

Cooperation

Taxonomy

Cooperative

Aware Unaware

Strongly coordinated Weakly coordinated Not coordinated

Strongly centralized Weakly centralized Distributed

Cooperation

Knowledge

Coordination

• No communication protocol

• Taking into account other robot’s actions

• “Follow the leader” object transportation

Taxonomy

Cooperative

Aware Unaware

Strongly coordinated Weakly coordinated Not coordinated

Strongly centralized Weakly centralized Distributed

Cooperation

Knowledge

Coordination

• No communication protocol

• Reduce interference

• Aircraft free-flight mode (small detour allowed)

Taxonomy

Cooperative

Aware Unaware

Strongly coordinated Weakly coordinated Not coordinated

Strongly centralized Weakly centralized Distributed

Coordination

Organization

• Using communication protocol

• Leader chosen in advance

• High computational demand for leader

Taxonomy

Cooperative

Aware Unaware

Strongly coordinated Weakly coordinated Not coordinated

Strongly centralized Weakly centralized Distributed

Coordination

Organization

• Using communication protocol

• Leader chosen dynamically

• More robust than strongly centralized organization

Taxonomy

Cooperative

Aware Unaware

Strongly coordinated Weakly coordinated Not coordinated

Strongly centralized Weakly centralized Distributed

Coordination

Organization

• Using communication protocol, autonomous actions

• Robust to communication failure and robot malfunctioning

• Broadcast of Local Eligibility

World Model Robots maintain individual world model

Contains perceptions of state of world Soccer: position, heading, ball, teammate

and opponent positions

Use all individual models for global world model Shared perception to minimize sensor

reading error

Previous work

AIBO team with global world model Difference in timestamps; no Kalman

filtering High latency; only use shared ball position

when ball cannot be located High error in vision; use teammate’s own

estimated positions

Proposal

To create a flexible communications platform for inter AIBO information exchange to the extend to create a Common World Model.

Proposal - cont

Physical

Protocol

Messages

Common World Model

Remote Event

Strategy

…

References

Dave Touretzky and Ethan Andrew of CMU Add multi-connection support to Wireless Help with Messaging Design

German Code has form of CMW Gal Kaminka of Bar-Ilan

Extensive Multi-Robot Research with AIBO’s

Approach Research Previous Work Create Multi AIBO Message Layer

Add multi-connection support Register AIBO’s Subscribe to Events

Expand current WorldModel to facilitate Common World Model

Experiment with Common World Model

Message Layer Design AIBO’s registered with each other.

Static or Dynamic(broadcast)

EventRouter instance for each remote AIBO

AIBO’s subscribe to receive event types. If no AIBO subscribes the originating AIBO won’t

send the events or receive all events and just act on the ‘interesting’ ones.

Advantages Subscribing to events on other robots would be

as simple as subscribing to events on the local machine.

Flexible message layer usable for various multi-robot applications.

Common World Model is just one application of the Message Layer.

Updating the CWM in an AIBO would be the behavior to the event containing the WorldModel of another AIBO.

Planning

ID Task Name DurationOct 2005 Nov 2005

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 1w

Research - Previous Work- Latency Problem

2 2w 2.5dCreate Messenger Layer

1w 2.5dUsing Messenging/CMW

3 2wExpand World Model to Common World Model

6 1wCreate Paper and Presentation

4 1w 1dUse Message Layer to update Common World Model

5

Questions