Researchers at RRL investigate problems in the area of autonomous mobile robots with the goal of solving computational problems fundamental to the design and implementation of autonomous mobile robotics systems. The dynamic and complex environments in which AMR's are expected to operate impose a need for certain capabilites. Among these, RRL researchers are currently investigating the following:

• Rapid multi-modal sensing and integration :   The capability to rapidly sense external events via multiple, diverse sensors and to meaning-fully integrate the information so gained.
  
• Real-time reponse :  The capability to make decisions and take appropriate actions to achieve goals without delay.
  
• Real-time interruptability :   The capability to interrupt normal operation and respond in a timely manner to external events occuring in its domain and then to resume the interrupted task after responding.
  
• Fault tolerance:    The capability to rely on the other functional units to continue operations in the events of an internal failure.
  

A major goal of RRL is to provide researchers with a stable, full-featured software development platform. Two important aspects of this goal are modularity and sofware reuse. Software reuse is needed to prevent constant re-invention of common software components in RRL research environment. Users of the system will be able to easily replace software components when better algorithms are found to accomplish the tasks of those components.

To ease the burden of developing such a complex system, an object oriented model of the data and computations involved in AMR applications is being developed. This model, called the distributed object model, handles communication between nodes in the distributed systems, real-time, dead-line scheduling and presistent object storage.

The importance of AMR research is steadily increasing as developments in technology make the deployment of such systems more feasible. As such systems become more prevalent, the industrial relevance of RRL research increases.

Robotics Research Laboratory
298 Coates Hall,
Louisiana State Univeristy,
Baton Rouge, LA 70803.
Phone: (225) - 578 - 1252
Fax     : (225) - 578 - 1465                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  WebMaster:
E-mail: web@csc.lsu.edu                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Karthik Nagabandi