Active Perception in Human-Swarm Collaboration

Human-swarm collaboration in an urban environment

Quadcopters ergodically exploring an information distriubtion

We are interested in improving human-swarm team performance by including the human directly into the control loop. While fully autonomous robotic exploration requires less supervision, it neglects the operator’s intuition. We have developed a shared control algorithm that leverages the capabilities of the human and the swarm by. This project focuses on determining how autonomy allocation affects exploration efforts, thus task performance of the human-swarm collaboration. Ongoing efforts utilize virtual reality (VR) environment build in Unity Software and HTC VIVE headset before transferring to field tests. At the same time, we are collecting biometric data such as eye gaze (Pupil Labs), EEG (Emotiv) and EKG (SOMNOmedics) to determine operator’s cognitive state.

People

Tommy Berrueta (Ph.D. Student)
Joel Meyer (Ph.D. Student)
Katarina Popovic (Ph.D. Student)
Milli Schlafly (Ph.D. Student)
Annalisa Taylor (Ph.D. Student)
Allie Pinosky (Ph.D. Student)

Collaborators

Siemens

Publications

Ergodic Specifications for Flexible Swarm Control: From User Commands to Persistent Adaptation
A. Prabhakar, I. Abraham, A. Taylor, M. Schlafly, K. Popovic, G. Diniz, B. Teich, B. Simidchieva, S. Clark, T. D. Murphey
Robotics Science and Systems, 2020. PDF Video

Real-time area coverage and target localization using receding-horizon ergodic exploration
A. Mavrommati, E. Tzorakoleftherakis, I. Abraham, and T. D. Murphey
IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 62–80, 2018. PDF, Video 1, Video 2

Funding

This project is funded by DARPA: Interaction & Perception: Multi-Source Spectral Framework for Human-Swarm Collaboration.

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Other Projects

Active Learning and Data-Driven Control
Active Perception in Human-Swarm Collaboration
Algorithmic Matter and Emergent Computation
Control for Nonlinear and Hybrid Systems
Cyber Physical Systems in Uncertain Environments
Harmonious Navigation in Human Crowds
Information Maximizing Clinical Diagnostics
Reactive Learning in Underwater Exploration
Robot-Assisted Rehabilitation
Software-Enabled Biomedical Devices