Heterogeneous system challenges in control, coordination, and communication - a case study with unmanned ground - aerial vehicles

Heterogeneous system design, modeling and testing requires that concepts and ideas from the diverse disciplines of Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Multi Agent Systems and Generalized System Theory be brought together under a common framework. Multi layer, hybrid, open architectures need be designed to manage distributed objects, services and modules between system components and support overall system functionality. Issues that need be addressed include, among others, individual component control, component coordination and communication, as well as overall system functionality in the presence of communication failures. This presentation considers the case of heterogeneous teams of unmanned ground - aerial robots operating in uncertain / hostile environments. It discusses aspects of distributed system architecture; it addresses fundamental control and communication problems and recommended solutions to distributed task allocation using unmanned ground - aerial vehicles; it examines asset recruitment with and without communication failures. Experimental studies and demos related to demining applications and traffic monitoring and emergency response have been conducted and they will be discussed.