A scalable platform for safe and secure decentralized traffic management of multiagent mobile systems
In this paper we describe the application of wireless sensor networking techniques to address the realization of a safe and secure decentralized traffic management system. We consider systems of many heterogeneous autonomous vehicles moving in a shared environment. Each vehicle is assumed to have different and possibly unspecified tasks, but they cooperate to avoid collisions. We are interested in designing a scalable architecture capable of accommodating a very large and dynamically changing number of vehicles, guaranteeing their safety, the achievement of their goals, and security against potential adversaries. By properly distributing and revoking cryptographic keys we are able to protec…
Local Monitor Implementation for Decentralized Intrusion Detection in Secure Multi–Agent Systems
This paper focuses on the detection of misbehav- ing agents within a group of mobile robots. A novel approach to automatically synthesize a decentralized Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as well as an efficient implementation of local monitors are presented. In our scenario, agents perform possi- bly different independent tasks, but cooperate to guarantee the entire system’s safety. Indeed, agents plan their next actions by following a set of logic rules which is shared among them. Such rules are decentralized, i.e. they depend only on configurations of neighboring agents. However, some agents may not be acting according to this cooperation protocol, due to spontaneous failure or tampering.…
Towards the Design of Robotic Drivers for Full-Scale Self-Driving Racing Cars
Autonomous vehicles are undergoing a rapid development thanks to advances in perception, planning and control methods and technologies achieved in the last two decades. Moreover, the lowering costs of sensors and computing platforms are attracting industrial entities, empowering the integration and development of innovative solutions for civilian use. Still, the development of autonomous racing cars has been confined mainly to laboratory studies and small to middle scale vehicles. This paper tackles the development of a planning and control framework for an electric full scale autonomous racing car, which is an absolute novelty in the literature, upon which we report our preliminary experim…
Distributed Multi-level Motion Planning for Autonomous Vehicles in Large Scale Industrial Environments
In this paper we propose a distributed coordination algorithm for safe and efficient traffic management of heterogeneous robotic agents, moving within dynamic large scale industrial environments. The algorithm consists of a distributed resource--sharing protocol involving a re--planning strategy. Once every agent is assigned with a desired motion path, the algorithm ensures ordered traffic flows of agents, that avoid inter--robot collision and system deadlock (stalls). The algorithm allows multi--level representation of the environment, i.e. large or complex rooms may be seen as a unique resource with given capacity at convenience, which makes the approach appealing for complex industrial e…
A Planning and Control System for Self-Driving Racing Vehicles
Autonomous robots will soon enter our everyday life as self-driving cars. These vehicles are designed to behave according to certain sets of cooperative rules, such as traffic ones, and to respond to events that might be unpredictable in their occurrence but predictable in their nature, such as a pedestrian suddenly crossing a street, or another car losing control. As civilian autonomous cars will cross the road, racing autonomous cars are under development, which will require superior Artificial Intelligence Drivers to perform in structured but uncertain conditions. We describe some preliminary results obtained during the development of a planning and control system as key elements of an A…
Decentralized intrusion detection for secure cooperative multi-agent systems
In this paper we address the problem of detecting faulty behaviors of cooperative mobile agents. A novel decentralized and scalable architecture that can be adopted to realize a monitor of the agents’ behavior is proposed. We consider agents which may perform different independent tasks, but cooperate to guarantee the entire system’s safety. Agents plan their next actions by following a set of rules which is shared among them. Such rules are decentralized, i.e. they dictate actions that depend only on configurations of neighboring agents. Some agents may not be acting according to this cooperation protocol, due to tampering or spontaneous failure. To detect such misbehaviors we propose a so…
Decentralized Coordination System for Multiple AGVs in a Structured Environment
Abstract In this paper, we propose a decentralized coordination algorithm for safe and efficient management of a group of mobile robots following predefined paths in a dynamic industrial environment. The proposed algorithm is based on shared resources and proved to guarantee ordered traffic flows avoiding collisions and deadlocks. In consistency with the model of distributed robotic systems (DRS), no centralized mechanism, synchronized clock, shared memory or ground support is needed. A local inter-robot communication is required among a small number of spatially adjacent robotic units.