The following describes several of our University Program participants and how they are using RTI Data Distribution Service and other RTI software products in their research.
http://users.rsise.anu.edu.au/~rsl/
Research in our laboratory focuses on underwater robotic vehicles, real-time autonomous systems, modular robotics, co-operative robot systems, mobile robot navigation, active vision, robot learning, human-robot interaction, friction-based robot-environment interaction, and autonomous formation control. The main research areas in the department of systems engineering are robust control systems, hybrid control, systems optimization, vision systems, robotic manipulation, signal processing, and autonomous robotics.
http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/projects/mars/
The Carnegie Mellon Field Robotics Center is working with NASA's Intelligent Robotics Program to transfer research in autonomous navigation to Mars rover prototypes developed at JPL. Working with Constellation will make the transition of software to JPL easier.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/mlab/www/home.html
The Manipulation Lab focuses on autonomous robotic manipulation in the presence of uncertainty with research in manipulation mechanics, modeling physical processes, planning and sensors. The Lab has a variety of projects including desktop robotics, tactile sensing, and dynamics manipulation.
http://www.mae.cornell.edu/campbell/
Research in ASL focuses on networked systems of humans and robots interacting with an environment in the form of perception and acting. Our lab includes many types of robots (driving, walking, flying) and sensors (laser, vision, thermal). Human operators can act from computer terminals, laptops, or GPS equipped handheld computers. We are using RTI as part of our networking infrastructure in order to enable the sharing of information in a scalable manner, for our research experiments.
The UAV Research Facility focuses on adaptive control and extreme maneuvering of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Current projects include the use of adaptive control in low-level attitude and trajectory control of an autonomous helicopter and the cooperation of UAVs with other vehicles.
IMDL will be using Constellation for several research projects including: active and passive damping, adaptive control, automated manufacturing, fuzzy and neural networks, precision engineering and motion control, multimedia technology, intelligent sensors and actuators, vision-based motion control and teleoperation.
http://www.automation.hut.fi/projects/agrix/index_en.html
The Automation Technology laboratory at Helsinki University of Technology is working in the field of robotics, mechatronics and control of industrial processes. The Agri & Forestry group concentrates on new technologies and control methods for semiautonomous heavy duty machines; modular design with open networked automation systems, embedded software, navigation and positioning, machine perception and intelligence.
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/mm/research/manufacturing-systems/
Over more than a decade the MSI Research Institute has been a major contributor to international developments in Enterprise Modelling and Enterprise Integration. Its systems modelling and integration concepts, methods and software tools have been applied with respect to many large-scale manufacturing, engineering, logistical and business systems. Currently MSI has around 25 research staff and students whose work is funded jointly by government and industry. The Institute's researchers have leading edge expertise in areas of: systems engineering and change; business process modelling visualisation and analysis; human systems design and enactment; machine and software component design and implementation; workflow management; and internet-enabled distribution of design, engineering and monitoring services.
http://mers.csail.mit.edu/mers-projects.htm
New generations of sensor rich, massively distributed, embedded systems are being developed that have the potential for profound social, environmental, and economic change. These systems include networked automobiles that never fail, cooperating vehicle teams that perform search and rescue, and humanoid robots that will assist astronauts in space, or the elderly back on earth. The objective of the MERS group is to revolutionize the way in which we create and control these new artifacts. Research in the MERS group concentrates on model-based autonomy -- the creation of long-lived autonomous systems that are able to explore, command, diagnose and repair them selves using fast, commonsense reasoning.
http://lims.mech.northwestern.edu
The Laboratory for Intelligent Mechanical Systems specializes in the fields of robotics and controls. They have a focus in haptics, human/robot interaction, robot-assisted surgery, sensors, and general robotics issues.
http://whale.fe.up.pt/seaware/
Porto University uses RTI Data Distribution Service in Seaware, a publish-subscribe middleware for multi-vehicle networked systems composed of autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles and systems. Seaware provides a high level interface to network communications and may be deployed with a combination of heterogeneous components within a dynamic network. Seaware supports the RTPS (Real Time Publish Subscribe) protocol, underwater acoustic modems and other forms of network transport.
http://www.ie.psu.edu/Facilities/Facilities.html
The VTR Lab focuses on research in robotics, manufacturing automation, and man-machine systems. They have projects in experimental robotics, cable array robots, modeling robotic systems, adaptive and nonlinear control, machine vision and telerobotics.
The Center for Automation Technologies specializes in micro and nano manufacturing. Their emphasis is on microsystem design, assembly and packaging. Current projects include microfluidics, microphotonics, micropackaging, and parallel micro & nano assembly.
Robonaut is a humanoid robot designed by the Robot Systems Technology Branch at NASA's Johnson Space Center in a collaborative effort with DARPA. The Robonaut project seeks to develop and demonstrate a robotic system that can function as an EVA astronaut equivalent. Robonaut jumps generations ahead by eliminating the robotic scars (e.g., special robotic grapples and targets) and specialized robotic tools of traditional on-orbit robotics. However, it still keeps the human operator in the control loop through its telepresence control system. Robonaut is designed to be used for "EVA" tasks, i.e., those which were not specifically designed for robots.
Research in the ARL focuses on improving robotic performance through the application of feedback control, integrated sensing systems, and task-level autonomy. All of the research is developed and validated on experimental hardware systems. These systems include both mobile robots (land, sea, sky, and space) and a variety of fixed anipulators for space and factory applications.
http://wwwvs.informatik.fh-wiesbaden.de/forschung/
The goal of the project is to develop real-time capable (assured, not just probablisitc) middleware, based on RTI Data Distribution Service, thus adding determinism to RTI Data Distribution Service implementation. Duration: about 2years. Results of the thesis, such as installed RTI Data Distribution Service implementation, will be used in education in "Distributed embedded systems" courses.
The Systems and Control group has designed and built several prototypes of service and mobile robots such for inspections of industrial plants, and surface inspections. Currently, they are building two kinds of mobile robots for exploration in hazardous environments like volcanoes. They are using Constellation to develop the real-time motion control, telemetry and teleoperation algorithms for these mobile robots.
http://avatar.colorado.edu/~siewerts/research/phd.html
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has developed a certificate program in Embedded Systems. The Real-Time Embedded Systems course requires students to develop embedded subsystems typically used in robotics and multi-media applications including: mobile computer vision platforms for target peak-up/tracking, ranging, and navigation; robotic arm/manipulator control; and digital video/audio encode/decode and network transport. RTI tools are used by students in these courses to design, implement, and analyze real-time embedded systems.
University of Granada is conducting a number of research projects that incorporate RTI Data Distribution Service, such as: Bloom-filter-based Discovery protocols for DDS; XML-based approach to the configuration and deployment of DDS applications; and QoS policies for Audio and Video distribution using DDS middleware.
Human exploration and development of space will demand a heavy extravehicular activity (EVA) workload from a small number of crew members. In order to alleviate the astronaut workload robots remotely working with teleoperated control are currently being developed at NASA - Johnson Space Center. One such telerobot is the ROBONAUT (ROBOtic astroNAUT), which is an anthropomorphic robot with two arms, two hands, a head, a torso and a stabilizing leg. One more intuitive way to teleoperate the ROBONAUT than just using a joystick is to estimate the three-dimensional motion of the teleoperator's body parts (e.g., head, arms, torso, and legs) and then use the estimated motion to control the ROBONAUT. In such a system, the robot imitates the movements made by a teleoperator. As the teleoperator reaches out an arm, so does the ROBONAUT. And if the teleoperator starts twisting a screwdriver, the ROBONAUT should copy the action down to the slightest movement. Currently, the off-the-shelf systems for human motion estimation are very obtrusive and encumbering because they attached devices such as skeletons, electromagnetic sensors or markers to the operator. Our goal is to develop a non obtrusive system for human motion estimation from a monocular image sequence for teleoperation of ROBONAUT. In this stage of our project we would like to command the ROBONAUT with the output of our human motion estimation algorithm.
This project focuses on the fundamental research in nonlinear control of mechanical systems. The motivation for this work comes from two application areas: autonomous navigation of underwater and aerospace vehicles, and locomotion for hybrid robotic mechanisms.
This department is working on the National Advanced Driving Simulator, which will be the most advanced driving simulator in the world. Funded by the National Highway and Safety Administration, the mission of NADS-SC is to support safety research and conduct R&D work in the areas of traffic safety, and a virtual proving ground.
http://www-sensorimotor.cs.umass.edu
This department is working on the National Advanced Driving Simulator, which will be the most advanced driving simulator in the world. Funded by the National Highway and Safety Administration, the mission of NADS-SC is to support safety research and conduct R&D work in the areas of traffic safety, and a virtual proving ground.
Researchers in the RTCL are investigating basic research issues in the areas listed below, and apply the basic research results to real-life applications.
http://www.precisionmanufacturing.co.uk
The Precision Manufacturing Centre (PMC) is a world-class centre of research that delivers high quality technology solutions in a wide range of areas including precision manufacture, adaptive fixturing, micro fabrication and assembly automation. In particular, our group concentrates on the development of reconfigurable assembly platforms and the integration of manufacturing systems according to the plug & produce concept. The research is applied in a large number of projects in aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical and microelectronics industries.
The School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering's Intelligent Robotics Lab explores a variety of aspects in robotics and intelligent systems. In this lab we concentrate on embodied physical agents from both the software and hardware point of view.
The Applied Electronics Laboratory (APEL) is one of the main laboratories in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras. It was founded in 1975 and it is responsible for courses in the area of Electronics, Microelectronics, Microprocessors and Microcomputers, Embedded Systems, Telecommunication Electronics and Real Time Networks. Over 200 Masters and over 40 Ph.D. theses have been completed in the past twenty years. Many more are, currently, in the stage of execution or completion.
The Smart Machines Laboratory has three complementary research themes: (i) machine control focusing on the application of model predictive control methods and techniques to large mechanical systems; (ii) perception, focusing on the mapping and segmentation of terrain; and (iii) mission planning focusing on the development of algorithms for decision planning on receding horizons for automation systems. Much of the work conducted is in close association mining equipment manufacturers and mining companies leading to automation of mining equipment through the Cooperative Research Centre for Mining (CRCMining).
http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/~midlab/
Middleware has emerged as a critical second level of the enterprise IT infrastructure. Even though this software is not visible to users, it enables resource management and systems interoperabilty across a distributed system in either a peer-to-peer or a client/server fashion despite differences in OS platforms, networks and data schemas.
The primary goal of MIDLAB is to support leading-edge research and development on middleware bridging the gap between the latest research results and the current technologies. In particular main MIDLAB targets are the study, the design and analysis of novel middleware platforms able to increase the robustness of information exchanging with respect to reliability, consistency, predictability and security."
http://www.mecatronica.eesc.usp.br/meca
We at the Mechatronics Laboratory are focusing our efforts on the update of the educational program and on the development of new training concepts that explore and enhance the ability to create competitive mechatronic products using real-time development environments. The Mechatronics Laboratory research activities are distributed in three main groups: Robotics, Automation & Systems Engineering The Automation group is concerned with Industrial Network Protocols and Security, Industrial and Automation and Data Integration. The Constellation Framework and the ScopeTools will be used by this group for research and development towards the creation of a generic and distributed controller.
http://www.his.se/templates/ClearStartPage.aspx?id=43046
This group focuses on the control of manufacturing machine systems with the aid of 3-D robotic simulation systems. They are setting up a Mechatronic Systems Platform to study problems characterized by the need for an integrated approach of product and production development and the need for agility in manufacturing environments. RTI's RTI Data Distribution Service is used to integrate robotic simulation systems with other simulators and hardware devices.
This laboratory will focus on sensor-based intelligent systems applied to applications in space, nuclear environments and biological systems.
http://www.engr.utk.edu/mabe/rsrch-ram.html
The focus of the research is in the broad areas of robotics and automation as they apply to manufacturing automation, industrial controls, remote operations in hazardous environments, military operations, and space applications. They have capabilities in telerobotics, advanced teleoperations, redundant and flexible manipulators and unmanned vehicles. They are using Constellation to implement a human-interactive telerobot controller.
http://www3.uta.edu/faculty/reyes/AVL/
The Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory (AVL) is concerned with answering a host of research questions related to engineering remotely-controlled, autonomous, and cooperatively-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), as well as numerous supporting technologies.
http://www.uthouston.edu/index/about.htm
The research program includes software and hardware issues involved in real-time control, robot path planning, cooperative manipulation, flexible-link robot control, robotic system visualization, and haptic interfaces for telemanipulation. Other research activity includes the design and control of a macro-micro manipulator system and haptic interfaces for robotic task planning and teleoperation.
http://bme.pe.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index_e.html
Our Laboratory is the first laboratory which specializes in Bio-Medical Engineering in Japan. There are 2 professors, an associate professor, an assistant professor, 2 research assistants and 25 students in our lab. Since 1980, we have studied about "Computer-aided Surgery (CAS)", "Measuring physiological phenomenon," and "Rehabilitation Engineering." Most of our research are joint studies with medical departments and companies.
The VETO Lab has research project in haptic interfaces, locomotion interfaces, teleoperation, rapid virtual prototyping, scientific visualization, and human operator dynamics.
http://www.aa.washington.edu/controls/
The Control Systems Laboratory teaches students about the components of feedback control systems (sensors, actuators, dynamics systems) through classes and experimental projects that use contemporary software tools for controller design and implementation. In cooperation with The Boeing Company, the lab is using Constellation to develop precision control of large, flexible robotic systems for aircraft part manufacturing.
http://www.engga.uwo.ca/research/robo/
The research program includes software and hardware issues involved in real-time control, robot path planning, cooperative manipulation, flexible-link robot control, robotic system visualization, and haptic interfaces for telemanipulation. Other research activity include the design and control of a macro-micro manipulator system and haptic interfaces for robotic task planning and teleoperation.
http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/
A key focus of ISIS is to develop high-assurance and high-performance DRE system technologies by building prototype systems and deploying them in testbed and production settings. Since its inception in 1998, ISIS has conducted research on foundational technologies and experimental methods related to model-based software and quality of service (QoS)-enabled middleware to enhance the quality and performance of next-generation DRE systems.
The DOC Group is a distributed research consortium led by Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt and consisting of the DOC group in ISIS at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, the Center for Distributed Object Computing in the Computer Science department at Washington University and the Laboratory for Distributed Object Computing in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at the University of California, Irvine. The purpose of the DOC group is to support advanced R&D on middleware and modeling tools for distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) systems.
Nano Manufacturing and Mechatronics Lab of Yonsei University focuses on the research of manufacturing process and control design, especially at micro/nano scale. Real-time dynamic simulation and measurement utilizing computer network is applied to the development and operation of reconfigurable micro-sized automation systems.
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