@conference {PSFB06, title = {Probabilistic verification of a decentralized policy for conflict resolution in multi-agent systems}, booktitle = {Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation}, year = {2006}, note = {

Correct version

}, pages = {2448-2453}, abstract = {

In this paper, we consider a decentralized cooperative control policy proposed recently for steering multiple non-holonomic vehicles between assigned start and goal configurations while avoiding collisions. The policy is known to ensure safety (i.e., collision avoidance) for an arbitrarily large number of vehicles, if initial configurations satisfy certain conditions. The method is highly scalable, and effective solutions can be obtained for several tens of autonomous agents. On the other hand, the liveness property of the policy, i.e. the capability of negotiating a solution in finite time, is not yet completely understood. In this paper, we introduce a condition on the final vehicle configurations, which we conjecture to be sufficient for guaranteeing liveness. Because of the overwhelming complexity of proving the sufficiency of such condition, we assess the correctness of the conjecture in probability through the analysis of the results of a large number of randomized experiments.

}, keywords = {Embedded Control, Robotics}, author = {L. Pallottino and V. G. Scordio and E. Frazzoli and A. Bicchi} } @inbook {BLMS03, title = {On The Problem of Simultaneous Localization, Map Building, and Servoing of Autonomous Vehicles}, booktitle = {Advances in Control of Articulated and Mobile Robots}, series = {STAR - Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics}, number = {10}, year = {2004}, pages = {223-239}, publisher = {Springer Verlag}, organization = {Springer Verlag}, abstract = {

In this chapter, we consider three of the main problems that arise in the navigation of autonomous vehicles in partially or totally unknown environments, i.e. building a map of the environment, self-localizing, and servoing the robot so as to achieve given goals based on sensorial information. As compared to most part of the existing literature on SLAM, we privilege here a system-theoretic view to the problem, which allows the localization and mapping problems to be cast in a unified framework with the control problem. The chapter is an overview of existing results in this vein, and of some interesting directions for research in the field. All chapters of this volume were revised and published online March 2005. The volume number was corrected from 4010 to 10.

}, keywords = {Embedded Control, Robotics}, author = {A. Bicchi and F. Lorussi and P. Murrieri and V. G. Scordio}, editor = {B. Siciliano and A. De Luca and C. Melchiorri and G. Casalino} }