Rachael N. Darmanin

Bio: Rachael N. Darmanin is an academic researcher from University of Malta. The author has contributed to research in topics: Modular design & Mobile robot. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 36 citations.

A review on multi-robot systems categorised by application domain

Abstract: Literature reviews on Multi-Robot Systems (MRS) typically focus on fundamental technical aspects, like coordination and communication, that need to be considered in order to coordinate a team of robots to perform a given task effectively and efficiently. Other reviews only consider works that aim to address a specific problem or one particular application of MRS. In contrast, this paper presents a survey of recent research works on MRS and categorises them according to their application domain. Furthermore, this paper compiles a number of seminal review works that have proposed specific taxonomies in classifying fundamental concepts, such as coordination, architecture and communication, in the field of MRS.

Autonomous Exploration and Mapping using a Mobile Robot Running ROS

Abstract: This paper proposes a practical solution to the autonomous exploration and mapping problem using a single mobile robot. Moreover, the authors implement the proposed scheme within the Robot Operating System (ROS), and validate it experimentally using PowerBot, a real wheeled mobile robot equipped with a 2D laser scanner. In essence, the proposed scheme integrates an efficient particle-filter-based SLAM algorithm, two different exploration strategies, and a path-planning and navigation module. The modular nature of the proposed scheme is intentional and advantageous. It allows the authors to compare the two exploration strategies under investigation objectively and with ease. Finally, hypotheses testing is also used to strengthen the results of the comparative analysis.

A Survey of Underwater Multi-Robot Systems

Abstract: As a cross-cutting field between ocean development and multi-robot system (MRS), the underwater multi-robot system (UMRS) has gained increasing attention from researchers and engineers in recent decades. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of cooperation issues, one of the key components of UMRS, from the perspective of the emergence of new functions. More specifically, we categorize the cooperation in terms of task-space, motion-space, measurement-space, as well as their combination. Further, we analyze the architecture of UMRS from three aspects, i.e., the performance of the individual underwater robot, the new functions of underwater robots, and the technical approaches of MRS. To conclude, we have discussed related promising directions for future research. This survey provides valuable insight into the reasonable utilization of UMRS to attain diverse underwater tasks in complex ocean application scenarios.

Toward human-vehicle collaboration: Review and perspectives on human-centered collaborative automated driving

Abstract: The last decade witnessed a great development of automated driving vehicles (ADVs) and vehicle intelligence. The significant increment of machine intelligence poses a new challenge to the community, which is the collaboration between human drivers and vehicle autonomy. As vehicle autonomy is gaining more control authority, the roles that human drivers can play in the future need to be further clarified. In this study, literature review and perspectives on the human behaviors and cognition (HBC) for ADVs toward human-autonomy (H-A) collaboration are proposed. First, the H-A collaboration basics and key factors are reviewed. Then, the HBC issues in driver behavior modeling and understanding are discussed. Specifically, two key factors are reviewed, which are human trust and situation awareness (SA). Next, HBC in two H-A collaboration-enabled vehicle control methods, namely, shared control and take-over control, are analyzed. It is shown that the human-centered collaboration strategy that integrates driver states will largely increase the acceptance of the ADVs. Then, the HBC issues in the design of human-machine-interface (HMI) for future autonomous and collaboration-enabled ADVs are discussed. Last, challenges and future works for H-A collaboration on ADVs are analyzed to contribute to the development of understandable, trustable, and acceptable ADVs.

Prescribed Performance Distance-Based Formation Control of Multi-Agent Systems (Extended Version).

Abstract: This paper presents a novel control protocol for robust distance-based formation control with prescribed performance in which agents are subjected to unknown external disturbances. Connectivity maintenance and collision avoidance among neighboring agents are also handled by the appropriate design of certain performance bounds that constrain the inter-agent distance errors. As an extension to the proposed scheme, distance-based formation centroid maneuvering is also studied for disturbance-free agents, in which the formation centroid tracks a desired time-varying velocity. The proposed control laws are decentralized, in the sense that each agent employs local relative information regarding its neighbors to calculate its control signal. Therefore, the control scheme is implementable on the agents' local coordinate frames. Using rigid graph theory, input-to-state stability, and Lyapunov based analysis, the results are established for minimally and infinitesimally rigid formations in 2-D or 3-D space. Furthermore, it is argued that the proposed approach increases formation robustness against shape distortions and can prevent formation convergence to incorrect shapes, which is likely to happen in conventional distance-based formation control methods. Finally, extensive simulation studies clarify and verify the proposed approach.

Review on state-of-the-art dynamic task allocation strategies for multiple-robot systems

Abstract: This paper aims to present a concise review on the variant state-of-the-art dynamic task allocation strategies. It presents a thorough discussion about the existing dynamic task allocation strategies mainly with respect to the problem application, constraints, objective functions and uncertainty handling methods.,This paper briefs the introduction of multi-robot dynamic task allocation problem and discloses the challenges that exist in real-world dynamic task allocation problems. Numerous task allocation strategies are discussed in this paper, and it establishes the characteristics features between them in a qualitative manner. This paper also exhibits the existing research gaps and conducive future research directions in dynamic task allocation for multiple mobile robot systems.,This paper concerns the objective functions, robustness, task allocation time, completion time, and task reallocation feature for performance analysis of different task allocation strategies. It prescribes suitable real-world applications for variant task allocation strategies and identifies the challenges to be resolved in multi-robot task allocation strategies.,This paper provides a comprehensive review of dynamic task allocation strategies and incites the salient research directions to the researchers in multi-robot dynamic task allocation problems. This paper aims to summarize the latest approaches in the application of exploration problems.

A Survey of Underwater Multi-Robot Systems

Abstract: As a cross-cutting field between ocean development and multi-robot system (MRS), the underwater multi-robot system (UMRS) has gained increasing attention from researchers and engineers in recent decades. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of cooperation issues, one of the key components of UMRS, from the perspective of the emergence of new functions. More specifically, we categorize the cooperation in terms of task-space, motion-space, measurement-space, as well as their combination. Further, we analyze the architecture of UMRS from three aspects, i.e., the performance of the individual underwater robot, the new functions of underwater robots, and the technical approaches of MRS. To conclude, we have discussed related promising directions for future research. This survey provides valuable insight into the reasonable utilization of UMRS to attain diverse underwater tasks in complex ocean application scenarios.