9729875 Heimdahl, Mats, P.E. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities CISE Research Instrumentation: Applying Software Engineering Methodologies to Robotics Tasks: A Cross Disciplinary Approach This research instrumentation enables research projects in:- Rapid Prototyping and Synthesis of Software for Embedded Systems, - Studies of Different Issues in Vision-Based Robotic Grasping,- Sensor Fusion in Vehicle Applications, and - Behaviors of Multiple Self-Interested Robots. To support the aforementioned projects, the Department of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota will purchase a VXI-bus embedded real-time software development environment, several mobile platforms, and robot simulation software which will be dedicated to research in software engineering, robotics, and artificial intelligence. The equipment will be used for several research projects, including in particular: requirements-based prototyping and synthesis of control software for embedded systems, closed-loop vision-based robotic grasping, sensor fusion for vehicle applications, and behaviors of multiple self-interested robots. In addition to the contributions of the individual projects, the collaboration between the PIs will help evaluate cutting edge software engineering techniques on realistic projects (for example, evaluation of scalability, evaluation of ease of use, and applicability to the domain) as well as evaluate the use of rigorous software engineering techniques in robotics and AI applications (for example, the effect on reuse of control algorithms, and the effect on system performance, robustness, and safety). The equipment purchase includes (1) a complete VXI-bus embedded software development environment, (2) one VXI-bus embedded computer with interfaces for sensing and control applications, (3) low-cost mobile platforms serving as testbeds for the proposed projects, and (4) robotics simulations software to be used in task planning and software prototyping.
