Event
Booz Allen Colloquium in ECE presents Prof. Vijay Kumar: "Architectures for Large Teams of Robots"
Friday, September 25, 2009
2:30 p.m.
CSIC Bldg., Lecture Hall, Rm. 1115
Jess Molina
jmolina2@umd.edu
http://www.ece.umd.edu/colloquium
Booz Allen Hamilton Distinguished Colloquium in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Architectures, Abstractions, and Algorithms for Large Teams of Robots
Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Friday, September 25, 2009
2:30 pm
CSIC Bldg., Lecture Hall, Rm. 1115
ABSTRACT:
Networked robots represent the convergence of robotics, sensor networks and mobile ad-hoc networks, with many applications and a growing market projected to grow to $200B in the next five years. This talk will address some fundamental problems and practical challenges underlying the deployment of large numbers of autonomously functioning robots. The central problem is the so-called inverse problem of deriving individual robot behaviors for a desired group behavior. There are numerous examples of group behavior in biology at different length scales that lend themselves to quantitative modeling and control providing insight for the synthesis of collective behaviors for engineered systems. I will discuss several examples and present a methodology for modeling and analyzing such collective behaviors. I will then describe our approach to developing architectures, abstractions and algorithms for the control of large networks of aerial and ground robots.
BIOGRAPHY:
Vijay Kumar is the UPS Foundation Professor and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University in 1985 and 1987 respectively. He has been on the Faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics with a secondary appointment in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania since 1987.
Dr. Kumar served as the Deputy Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science from 2000-2004. He directed the GRASP Laboratory, a multidisciplinary robotics and perception laboratory, from 1998-2004. He was the Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from 2005-2008.
Dr. Kumar's research interests lie in the area of robotics and networked multi-agent systems. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has served on the editorial boards of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Journal of Franklin Institute, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design and the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics. He is the recipient of the 1991 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator award, the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the 1997 Freudenstein Award for significant accomplishments in mechanisms and robotics and the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation Kawamori Best Paper Award. He is also a Distinguished Lecturer in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and an elected member of the Robotics and Automation Society Administrative Committee.
