Research on self-organizing networked systems

Lakeside Labs and NES institute of the Alpen-Adria-Universität are working on autonomous multi-robot systems. The research focuses on the organization and communication during an exploration of indoor environments. Such autonomous systems may keep humans from entering hazardous environments by exploring it first. The implementation of wireless communication between robots without having to rely on pre-installed communication hardware, such as wireless routers or cellular networks is one of the tasks. The newly created communication modules are used to exchange local maps produced by robots and to merge these local maps to a common global map. The video shows how our approach works. For further information please contact: http://www.lakeside-labs.com

This video explains our research on autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The research team at the Alpen-Adria University and Lakeside Labs developing a multi-UAV system by four key components:

- the multiple UAV platforms,

- The sensing component that analyzes the captured data,

- the aerial network that provides wireless networking functionality among the UAVs and the ground station,

- the coordination component that organizes the individual tasks of the UAVs to achieve a common mission goal.

The Self-organizing Intelligent Network of UAVs (SINUS) project focuses on the integration of these components and their interaction to effectively close the sensing-networking-acting loop within the multi-UAV system.

Such a tight integration is necessary for deploying self-organizing UAVs in dynamic and partly unknown environments.

For more information please visit our website: http://uav.lakeside-labs.com/overview/sinus/

Thank you for watching.

It is not a secret that in the 21st century, information is crucial. In a disaster scenario this statement becomes even stronger, since up-to-date information might save lives.

In the project "Collaborative microdrones" we use small aerial robots to provide such information to the rescue team. It is an overview image of a disaster scene and is updated over time.

This thesis is about an algorithm to compute paths that the robots will follow. The video explains how the whole system works. The Base Station on the ground (lady in black) constructs the paths and commands a Drone (lady in red) where to fly. Following this path the Drone takes pictures at the specified points and sends them to the Base Station. Whenever the Drone runs out of energy, it can renew it at the Station. Eventually the whole area is covered possibly multiple times if necessary.

The advantage of my algorithm is that it is fast (can be executed during the rescue mission) and considers real-life constraints like limited energy. More information on this work and our projects can be found at uav.lakeside-labs.com/

Music by Jan Morgenstern - wavemage.com/

The iPhone application BUZZflies detects sounds from other iPhone devices and synchronizes them utilizing a synchronization algorithm inspired from the nature:

the firefly synchronization algorithm.

After the iPhone devices are synchronized they will play a song of your choice from your library.

This iPhone application is a demonstration of simple distributed scheme based on the theory of pulse coupled oscillators. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rx2THU3daM&list=PLB18oUigs4QCaBg2k20Zp6pGQd2Nsz-wg&index=3

Go for the free application BUZZflies on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/at/app/buzzflies/id402295450?mt=8

FREVO is an open-source framework developed in Java to help engineers and scientists in evolutionary design or optimization tasks.

Using off-the-shelf, low-altitude multicopters equipped with high-quality cameras and GPS, our project team developed a software that enables an autonomous system for aerial reconnaissance.

The overall system has been tested in the field with fire fighters and other application partners.

Traffic management and control systems depend heavily on timely and accurate information from sensors along observed roads. Amending existing sensors for traffic surveillance and environment monitoring on today's road networks with intelligent and selforganizing video sensors is the subject of a project entitled "LOOK2".

Together with ASFINAG, the Austrian operator of motorways and expressways, efficient methods for sensing, notifying and processing of relevant changes in traffic flow on Austrian motorways are investigated and evaluated.

From theory to practice: Self-organizing time synchronization using inhibitory and excitatory coupling.

Wasif Masood shows a time coupling experiment with off the shelf low cost devices. The algorithm he used has been inspired by the natural phenomenon of firefly synchronization....

We design the interactions between oscillators communicating via variably delayed pulse coupling to guarantee their synchronization on arbitrary network topologies. We identify a class of response functions and prove convergence to network-wide synchrony from arbitrary initial conditions. Synchrony is achieved if the pulse emission is unreliable or intentionally probabilistic. These results support the design of scalable, reliable and energy-efficient communication protocols for fully distributed synchronization as needed, e.g., in mobile phone networks, embedded systems, sensor networks and autonomously interacting swarm robots.

This project aims to develop a solution for a smart resource-aware multi-sensor network (SRSnet) for autonomous event detection in scenarios with limited infrastructure. SRSnet integrates various state-of-the-art technologies, ranging from audio and video detection over localization to sensing: moreover, we intend carry out a scientific innovation on the research areas distributed smart sensors and concepts and algorithms on collaborative audio and video analysis. The work includes system assessment, simulations and prototype implementations.

http://srsnet.lakeside-labs.com/