January 17, 2012, HFH 4164

Emerging multi-agent autonomous systems can collaborate to carry out tasks such as sensing, source detection and localization, and mapping. Autonomous agents may also support and interact with first responders, fire fighters, and soldiers in complex and dangerous environments, providing services such as persistent connectivity, localization, and sensing. Success relies on mobile ad hoc networking that has significant challenges including rapidly fluctuating radio signals and intermittent topology. This motivates the study of mobility and control to maintain connectivity while providing the desired collaborative support. We look at some sensing and control strategies including planning for mutual visibility (e.g., to support optical communications), tracking of received radio signal strength to enable connectivity enhancement, and providing geolocation support via mobile base stations.

Brian M. Sadler is a Fellow of the IEEE, and a Fellow of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL). He is a senior research engineer at ARL in Adelphi, MD, leads an ARL research group in networked sensing, communications, and mobility, and directs an academic center in collaborative autonomy. He has been associate and guest editor for several journals in these areas. He received Best Paper Awards from the IEEE Signal Processing Society in 2006 and 2010, and several other R&D awards including a 2008 Outstanding Invention of the Year Award from the University of Maryland. His research interests include information science, networked and autonomous systems, acoustics, optics, and mixed-signal integrated circuit architectures.