search

UMD    AGRC






Professor Jeffrey Herrmann (ME/ISR) is the principal investigator for a new award from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), "Planning and Metareasoning for Multi-Agent Systems with Variable Communication Availability." Co-PIs on the project are Professor Shapour Azarm (ME), Assistant Professor Michael Otte (AE), and Assistant Professor Huan (Mumu) Xu (AE/ISR).

The research is part of AFRL’s Autonomous Swarms for Information-aware Mission Operations with Verification (ASIMOV) program, which studies algorithms for swarm autonomy in communications-constrained operating environments. The ASIMOV program is directed by Dr. Jeff Hudack at AFRL.

Coordinating the actions of different agents (such as unmanned aerial vehicles) to perform complex tasks like collaborative search and tracking, are essential to an autonomous swarm. The relative performance of coordination techniques may change as the availability of communication such as bandwidth and reliability varies.

The Clark School researchers will develop hybrid centralized and decentralized multi-agent task allocation methods with different levels of communication availability. They also will build metareasoning techniques to enable autonomous agents to select the most appropriate task allocation method in real-time based on the current state of communication availability and other relevant factors. The team will evaluate the methods in situations that include a swarm of autonomous vehicles fighting a wildfire.

The 18-month project, with an additional six-month option, is funded at $900,000.

 



Related Articles:
ArtIAMAS receives third-year funding of up to $15.1M
CSRankings places Maryland robotics at #10 in the U.S.
Department Welcomes New Faculty Member John Martin
Short Course Offers Opportunity to Build and Fly Drones
New short course focuses on drones
UMD’s SeaDroneSim can generate simulated images and videos to help UAV systems recognize ‘objects of interest’ in the water
UMD, UMBC, ARL Announce Cooperative Agreement to Accelerate AI, Autonomy in Complex Environments
A cooperative control algorithm for robotic search and rescue
Helping robots remember
Do Good Robotics Symposium to explore technologies that benefit society and the planet

December 11, 2018


«Previous Story  

 

 

Current Headlines

Three UMD Students Receive SAMPE Leadership Awards

Alum Named Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering at PennState

UMD Professor and Alum Among 2024 VFS Awardees

Agents of Positive Change: Highlighting Women Maryland Engineers

Celebrating Women in Aerospace Engineering: Christine Hartzell

Alum Astronaut Reports From Space Station: ‘I’m Still in Awe’

Patil, Datta Land Best Paper Award from AIAA

Two Aerospace Engineering Students Named Patti Grace Smith Fellows

Alumna Blasts Into Space

Celebrating Black Aerospace Engineers: Miles Robinson ‘17

 
 
Back to top  
AGRC Home Clark School Home UMD Home