Region-based Shape Control of Multi-agent Systems
 
Professor Chien Chern Cheah
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract:  Rapid advances in sensing, computing and communication technologies have led to the development of autonomous agents functioning in uncertain environment. Existing formation control methods fail to demonstrate satisfactory performance when dealing with a large number of agents because of the difficulty in specifying the positions/roles of all the agents or constraint relationships among them as the number of agents increase. In addition, the agents also needs to change their formations according to the changing environment, respond to unexpected changes in task requirements, for example by deploying new robots or removing faulty robots. Such changes introduce uncertainty in multi-agent systems that cannot be resolved with existing formation control theories. In this talk, a region-based shape control strategy for large-scale multi-agent systems will be presented. In this control method, the agents move as a group inside a desired region while maintaining a minimum distance among themselves. Various shapes and formations can be specified at a higher level in terms of inequality objective functions. The agents do not need specific identities or roles within a group. Therefore, unlike the existing formation control methods, the region-based control method does not require specific orders or positions of the robots and yet different formations can be formed by a large number of agents. The system is also scalable in the sense that any agent can move into the formation or leave the formation without affecting the other agents. The extensions to optical manipulation of multiple micro-objects will also be presented in this talk.

Speaker Biography: Chien Chern CHEAH was born in Singapore. He received B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from National University of Singapore in 1990, M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering, both from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 1993 and 1996, respectively. From 1990 to 1991, he worked as a design engineer in Chartered Electronics Industries, Singapore. He was a research fellow in the Department of Robotics, Ritsumeikan University, Japan from 1996 to 1998. He joined the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University as an assistant professor in 1998. Since 2003, he has been an associate professor in Nanyang Technological University. In 2002, he received the oversea attachment fellowship from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore to visit the Nonlinear Systems laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He serves as an associate editor for Automatica. He has served as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Robotics from 2010 to 2013 and Asian Journal of Control from 2009 to 2013. He was a guest editor of the special issue on vision based control of the Asian Journal of Control. He was the program chair of the International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV) in 2012 and 2006, and the program co-chair of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2017.

Cloud based real-time localization of mobile robot
 
Professor Xiaorui Zhu
Harbin Institute of Technology at Shenzhen, China

Abstract:  Cloud robotics provides a very promising solution to overcome the limitation problems of computational load and memory space faced by large-scale or long-term autonomous robots. Cloud robotics applies cloud computing concepts to a robot in order to augment the capabilities of the robot by distributing computation and sharing the huge data or new skills via the Internet. Although introduction of the cloud has the above advantages, some challenges have also arisen. For instance, simply throwing some algorithms from the robot up to the cloud might generate severe real-time problems. Unstable network or even network disconnection would make the whole system fail. This talk will focus on cloud based real-time localization of mobile robot in general large scale outdoor environments. Considering such localization issue as an example, this presentation will discuss how to develop a new cloud based paradigm for real-time localization of a ground mobile robot in different large-scale challenging scenarios where the GPS signal is often shadowed or completely unavailable. The proposed methodology allows the cloud providing huge space to store the large amount of data while minimizing requirements of hardware and onboard sensors for a mobile robot. On the other hand, network delay caused by data interchanging between the cloud and robot could be compensated successfully in this paradigm.

Speaker Biography: Xiaorui Zhu, Professor in Automation Department at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), the founding Board member of the notable Drone company, DJI. She also serves as the Co-Chair of Chapter and International Activities Committee since 2014, and Member of Industrial Activities Boardat IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS) since 2012. Her research interests include mobile robotics, small-scale unmannedaerial vehicle, and 3-D mapping. She received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering Department from University of Utah in 2006. She received the National Science and Technology Progress Award of China in 2012 for Archeological exploration robotic system she developed. Her paper won the Best Paper Finalist in 2014 IEEE International Conference on Biomimetics and Robotics (ROBIO 2014). She was awarded as “Notable Women in Robotics” at ICRA 2015.

NanoRobot as System Integration
 
Professor Lianqing Liu
Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Abstract:  The technique of Robotic Nano manipulation extends people’s ability into nano scale, which generates a significant influence to the modern science. It provides new feasible ways to solve the problems that traditional technique cannot achieve. In this talk, we will present the demonstration of nanorobot for its applications in biological study firstly. Then aiming at meeting the new function requisites aroused from the multidiscipline research, we introduce the recent progress of nanorobot in perspective of system integration. The integration here includes two meanings. One is developing technologies based on nanorobot itself, such as more accurate manipulation, fast scanning, molecular recognition and so on. Another meaning is creating new functions through integrating other advanced techniques into nanorobot system, such as planar patch clamp, Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy, Optical-induced tweezers. Each new integrated technology generates a boarder impact to the applications of nanorobot. The examples show the problems that cannot be investigated with traditional method can be elucidated through the work of nanorobot based integration, which in turn shows nanorobot as system integration leads to an improved significance and scientific value.

Speaker Biography: Lianqing Liu is a professor of Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his BSc degree in Industrial Automation from Zhengzhou University, China, in 2002, and his Ph.D degree in Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Systems from Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2009. Liu was awarded the Early Government/Industrial Career Award by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society in May, 2011, Early Career Award of NSFC in 2015, Lu Jiaxi Young Scientist Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Jan, 2011, and president Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009. Currently his research interests include Nanorobotics, Intelligent control, and Biosensors.

Control of a Single Wheel Robot–Gyrover
 
Professor Ou, Yongsheng
Automation and Computer Aided Engineering,Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract:  How to develop methodologies for autonomous control of dynamically stable systems in response to real-time inputs will be discussed. The problem has significant impact in a variety of applications such as inverted pendulum systems, rolling disks, bicycles, biped robots, hopping robots. In this thesis, we use a single wheel robot–Gyrover, as a typical example and an experimental planform to study this class of systems deeply. This talk contains two main topics: (1) based on the dynamic model analysis, design and investigate some nonlinear control approaches in balance control and tracking control for Gyrover, (2) study some important issues about building up an autonomous intelligent control strategy based on learning from human expert demonstrations.

Speaker Biography: Ou, Yongsheng is a Professor and PhD advisor. He received his PhD degree in automation and computer aided Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. He has published more than 100 papers in international journals and conferences such as “Automatica”. He has also published a monograph in English. His papers have won Best Paper Awards in international conferences such as IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA). His research work has been supported by several projects including 863 project of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The applicant has been supported by the “One-hundred Talents Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) since 2011. He has also served as an editorial board member in three international robotics journals. His research interests include: ServiceRobotics, nonlinear control, and other application areas.