SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)

IVS Facilities

Cooperative Systems

Multiagent Systems Engineering (MaSE)

IntelliDrive^SM Technology

Autonomous/Automated Systems

Mobile Robotics Engineering

Active Vehicle Safety and Autonomy (AVSA) Consortium (www.avsa.swri.org)

Mobile Autonomous Robotics Technology Initiative (MARTI™)

Publications

	SwRI specializes in the design and development of mobile robotics engineering systems.

Mobile robotics engineering research and development has been ongoing at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) for a number of years, and SwRI engineers continue to design and develop complex payloads, manipulators, and software algorithms to facilitate advanced behaviors on various sized platforms and for operation in different operational environments. These systems include:

• Controlled systems

• Supervised systems

• Unmanned systems

We leverage our extensive in-house capabilities in specific and very diverse technical areas, and when necessary, easily team with other competent organizations to fulfill client needs. SwRI’s mobile robotics engineering subject matter experts are involved in research and development in a variety of areas, including:

• Human Robotic Interface (HRI)

• Payload integration

• Sensor fusion and integration

• Maneuverability

• Navigation

• System integration

• Energy efficiency

• Command and control

• Safe operations

• Semi-autonomous behavior

• Highly dexterous manipulators

• Standardization

Design and development activities include the development of:

• Platform-independent intelligent software and sensor fusion

• Advanced navigation for task oriented missions

• Advanced perception and systems payloads

• Independent technology transfer and integration

Two examples of SwRI's research in this area include:

• Mobile Autonomous Robotics Technology Initiative (MARTI™): In 2006, SwRI made a major corporate commitment to ground robotics research and development through the funding of a multi-million dollar internal research and development program, entitled "The Mobile Autonomous Robotics Technology Initiative (MARTI)." This program is focused on developing scalable, modular, redundant, and flexible enabling technology for unmanned systems, and has resulted in the development of a Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL-6), Autonomy Level 8+, full-size autonomous vehicle that is used as a demonstration and benchmarking platform for further development of unmanned systems technology. This program has yielded state-of-the-art technology in:

   

  • Perception

  • Intelligence

  • Command and control

  • Communications

  • Safety systems

  • Platforms

   

  Additionally, our fully autonomous vehicle (MARTI) collaborates with other vehicles and unattended sensors to form a multi-agent system of systems. MARTI was demonstrated in New York City in November 2008 and at Ft. Hood, Texas, in a live convoy experiment/demonstration in September 2009.

   

• Hardware and Controls Abstraction for Mobile Robotic Engineering Platforms: Traditionally, robotic software development has been tightly coupled with the specific hardware platform selected for deployment. End-users often must control the robot using a manufacturer-specific controller, communications protocol, or programming language. Users that need to deploy multiple robot types are forced to learn a variety of hardware and software interfaces to accomplish even the most basic tasks. Significant effort is spent duplicating existing code, control methods, or operator interfaces on multiple platforms, since cross-platform code reuse is extremely difficult. This project developed the hardware abstraction framework and tested the design on three different robot platforms, including two small mobile robots and an industrial fixed-base manipulator.

   

  A software implementation supported user input from both tele-operation (joystick control) and pre-programmed motion paths. This implementation provided both qualitative feedback from operators performing tele-operation tasks and quantitative feedback comparing motion performance of the different platforms.

For more information about intelligent vehicle systems mobile robotics engineering at SwRI or how you can contract with SwRI, please contact Ryan D. Lamm at rlamm@swri.org or +1 (210) 522-5350 or Clay Flannigan at cflannigan@swri.org or +1 (210) 522-6805.

| Intelligent Systems Department | Automation and Data Systems Division | SwRI Home |

Southwest Research Institute^® (SwRI^®), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is a multidisciplinary, independent, nonprofit, applied engineering and physical sciences research and development organization with 12 technical divisions.

November 02, 2009