IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
Central New England Chapter
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Doors open: 6:00 PM
Presentation: 6:30 PM

HANDLING COMPLEXITY IN THE REAL WORLD THROUGH SYMBOLIC CONTROL

Presented by
Sean B. Andersson
Assistant Professor
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department
Boston University

The design of control laws to accomplish even seemingly simple tasks with an autonomous robot in the real world remains a persistent challenge. The complex and dynamic environment, the richness of mappings from sensor to actuator signals, and the ever-present problem of noise all conspire to drive the roboticist to the brink of insanity. In this talk we discuss an approach known as symbolic control that attempts to tackle the problem without resorting to analysis and design at the level of individual sensors and actuators. Under this method, one intentionally reduces the set of allowed control laws to a (finite) collection of specialized primitives. In addition to reducing the overall complexity, it carries intuitive appeal because tokenized descriptions are part of everyday experience: for example, a set of directions may include terms like "exit the room, turn right, walk down the hall, end enter the third door on the right." We will focus the discussion on two applications: symbolic control for navigation in large-scale environments and cooperation between multiple robots without explicit communication.

Sean B. Andersson is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at Boston University. He received a B.S. Degree in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1994, a M.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1995 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2003. From 1995-1996 he worked as a Project Engineer for AlliedSignal Aerospace (Torrance, CA) and from 1996-1998 as a Senior Controls Engineer for Aerovironment, Inc. (Monrovia, CA). From 2003-2006 he was a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. Dr. Andersson's current research interests include control applications in scanning probe microscopy, robotics, and symbolic control.

The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society will meet at its regular venue: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Olin Way, Needham, MA 02492, on Tuesday, April 8, 2008, for an informal discussion at 6:00 PM and the presentation at 6:30.

Directions to Olin College: Take Route 95/128 to exit 19B (Highland Avenue, Needham). Follow Highland Avenue for 1.5 miles to a three-way intersection with Chapel and May Streets; bear slight right onto Chapel Street (to the right of the gas station). Take a right at the first light onto Great Plain Avenue/Rte 135. Proceed on Great Plain Avenue for 1.5 miles and the Olin College campus will be on the right. Enter the campus at Olin Way and follow the road around to the left to parking lot A, which provides access to all campus buildings. From the parking lot take the walkway up to the Academic Center and follow instructions inside. For more detailed instructions, please refer to http://www.olin.edu/campus/getting_around.asp and follow the link to "Olin College Campus Map" in the left navigation bar.

After the meeting, at approx. 8:00 PM, the group will have a no-host dinner at Bertucci's, 1257 Highland Ave., Needham, MA 02492, where more conversations can take place with the guest speaker. Driving directions from Olin College to Bertucci's: Backtrack the previous route on Great Plain Avenue, Chapel St. to Highland Avenue. The restaurant will be located inside a plaza on the left, about 600 ft past the three-way intersection with Chapel and May Streets.

The meetings are open to the general public, and all are welcome at the dinner afterwards. For more information on IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, please contact Chapter Chair Peter Meyer at (781) 334-0052 or chair@robotics-boston.org, or visit http://www.robotics-boston.org/.