Author name cluster

Behnam Salemi

Possible papers associated with this exact author name in Arrow. This page groups case-insensitive exact name matches and is not a full identity disambiguation profile.

13 papers

1 author row

ICRA Conference 2011 Conference Paper

Toward Ultra High Speed Locomotors: Design and test of a cheetah robot hind limb

M. Anthony Lewis
Matthew R. Bunting
Behnam Salemi
Heiko Hoffmann

High speed robot locomotion is one of the most challenging problems in mobile robots. Fast robots push the limits of mechanical design, control and perception. The cheetah is an existence proof of what the authors term an Ultra-High Speed Locomotor, which can attain speeds of greater than 50 leg lengths per second and can cover 10 meters in a single gait cycle. In this paper, the energetics and dynamics of high-speed quadruped movement are analyzed. A leg design is presented that combines a novel hybrid actuator concept plus biarticular muscles to create a lightweight (17 Newton) leg capable of generating 90 Newtons of force. Static and dynamic test results show the promise of the hybrid actuator system in ultra high-speed locomotors.

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IROS Conference 2009 Conference Paper

TENTACLES: Self-configuring robotic radio networks in unknown environments

Harris Chi Ho Chiu
Bo Ryu
Hua Zhu
Pedro A. Szekely
Rajiv T. Maheswaran
Craig Milo Rogers
Aram Galstyan
Behnam Salemi

This paper presents a bio-inspired, distributed control algorithm called TENTACLES for a group of radio robots to move, self-configure and maintain communication between some critical entities (such as humans, command centers, or other systems) in an unknown environment. The basic idea is to direct robots' explorative movements to grow ¿tentacles¿ from entities and establish links when tentacles meet. This approach can self-heal failures of robots and improve communication coverage and quality over time. Experiments in simulations and real robots have shown positive results.

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IROS Conference 2008 Conference Paper

Wheeled locomotion for payload carrying with modular robot

Feili Hou
Nadeesha Oliver Ranasinghe
Behnam Salemi
Wei-Min Shen

Carrying heavy payloads is a challenging task for the modular robot, because its composing modules are relatively tiny and less strong compared with conventional robots. To accomplish this task, we attached passive rollers to the modular robot, and designed a wheeled locomotion gait called tricycleBot. The gait is inspired by paddling motion, and is implemented on the modular robot called SuperBot. Features of this gait are systematically studied and verified through extensive experiments. It is shown that tricycleBot can carry payloads at least 530% of its own weight. It can also be steered remotely to move forward/backward, turn left/right. Capability of tricycleBot demonstrates that the versatility of modular robot can be further expanded to solve very specialized and challenging tasks by using heterogeneous devices.

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IROS Conference 2007 Conference Paper

Multifunctional behaviors of reconfigurable superbot robots

Wei-Min Shen
Behnam Salemi
Mark Moll
Michael Rubenstein
Harris Chi Ho Chiu
Jacob Everist
Feili Hou
Nadeesha Oliver Ranasinghe

Superbot consists of Lego-like but autonomous robotic modules that can reconfigure into different systems for different tasks. Examples of configurable systems include rolling tracks or wheels (for efficient travel), spiders or centipedes (for climbing), snakes (for burrowing in ground), and climbers (for inspection and repair in space). This video shows several configurations and behaviors that are new for modular and reconfigurable robots. Each SuperBot module is a complete robotic system and has a power supply, micro- controllers, sensors, communication, three degrees of freedom, and six connecting faces (front, back, left, right, up and down) to dynamically connect to other modules. This design allows flexible bending, docking, and continuous rotation. A single module can move forward, back, left, right, flip-over, and rotate as a wheel. Modules can communication with each other for totally distributed control and can support arbitrary module reshuffling during their operation. The modules have both internal and external sensors for monitoring self-status and environmental parameters. They can form arbitrary configurations (graphs) and can control these configurations for different functionality such as locomotion, manipulation, and self-repair. This video shows the latest status the SuperBot modules and all these behaviors were made in just one week. The fact that SuperBot can achieve so much in so short a time demonstrates the unique value of modular, multifunctional and self-reconfigurable robots.

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IROS Conference 2006 Conference Paper

SUPERBOT: A Deployable, Multi-Functional, and Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robotic System

Behnam Salemi
Mark Moll
Wei-Min Shen

Self-reconfigurable robots are modular robots that can autonomously change their shape and size to meet specific operational demands. Recently, there has been a great interest in using self-reconfigurable robots in applications such as reconnaissance, rescue missions, and space applications. Designing and controlling self-reconfigurable robots is a difficult task. Hence, the research has primarily been focused on developing systems that can function in a controlled environment. This paper presents a novel self-reconfigurable robotic system called SuperBot, which addresses the challenges of building and controlling deployable self-reconfigurable robots. Six prototype modules have been built and preliminary experimental results demonstrate that SuperBot is a flexible and powerful system that can be used in challenging real-world applications.

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IROS Conference 2005 Conference Paper

MILO: personal robot platform

Behnam Salemi
Jorge Reis
Arash Saifhashemi
Fred Nikgohar

Recent advances in mobile robotic technology has given rise to new types of robotic applications called personal robotics. The main feature of these applications is that they require low cost robots that involve assisting people in doing their everyday jobs such as providing personal assistance, commercial security, mobile tele-conferencing, tele-presence, home services, entertainment, and elderly care. In this paper we introduce a low cost and general purpose mobile robotic platform called MILO. It offers unique hardware and software features which make MILO suitable for a wide spectrum of personal robotic applications. MILO possesses PC architecture and runs on Windows XP. We have experimentally evaluated MILO's performance. Preliminary results show that MILO can be effectively used to develop personal robotic applications.

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IROS Conference 2004 Conference Paper

Autonomous discovery and functional response to topology change in self-reconfigurable robots

Behnam Salemi
Peter M. Will
Wei-Min Shen

The topology of a self-reconfigurable robot can change at anytime. This can be as a result of the failure of some modules of the robot, joining new modules to the robot, displacement of some modules from one location to another caused by the self-reconfiguration task or any combination of these cases. Considering that the process of selecting relevant behaviors to accomplish a given task is based on the current topology of the self-reconfigurable robot, modules must be able to detect and respond to any changes to the robot topology. When changes to the topology of the robot are detected, modules can investigate new ways of accomplishing the given task. This paper presents a distributed solution, FEATURE algorithm, to the problem of autonomous discovery and functional response to topology change. The result is experimentally verified and demonstrated on the CONRO self-reconfigurable robots.

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ICRA Conference 2004 Conference Paper

Distributed Behavior Collaboration for Self-reconfigurable Robots

Behnam Salemi
Wei-Min Shen

This paper describes a distributed and decentralized approach for modules in a self-reconfigurable robot to select appropriate behaviors based on four factors: the current global task, the local topological location in the current configuration, the local state/sensor information, and the received messages from their neighbors. This approach does not assume any unique global identifiers for the modules, and is robust for reconfigurations of modules. The approach is enabled by the extended neighbor topology built upon a previous local topology representation and a hormone-inspired communication and control protocols. Experimental results on the CONRO robot have shown some unique features of this approach for the control of self-reconfigurable robots in general.

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IROS Conference 2004 Conference Paper

Sensor-based distributed control for chain-typed self-reconfiguration

Kenneth Payne
Behnam Salemi
Peter M. Will
Wei-Min Shen

This paper describes two contributions for chain typed self-reconfigurable robots: a very illustrative self-reconfiguration task changing from "I" shape to "T" shape, and a sensor-based distributed control method for automatic planning and execution of self-reconfiguration. In the "I-to-T" task, a snake robot is to reconfigure itself into a tripod by docking the tail to a target module in the body, releasing a portion of the connected mass as a new leg, and switching to a new gait automatically. We first accomplished this task using predetermined instructions for individual modules without considering sensor inputs. We then developed a sensor-based approach using our hormone-inspired distributed control to allow the robot to dynamically accept the point of connection at run-time, align the tail and the target using sensors, and select appropriate actions based on modules' location in the configuration. Compared to the standard inverse kinematics, this new control approach is sensor-based and can endure the limited computational resources and uncertainties in the connections. It can be applied to self-reconfigurations that are not designed by the programmers but triggered by the environment.

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IROS Conference 2003 Conference Paper

Distributed task negotiation in self-reconfigurable robots

Behnam Salemi
Peter M. Will
Wei-Min Shen

A self-reconfigurable robot can be viewed as a network of many autonomous modules. Driven by their local information, the modules can initiate tasks that may conflict with each other at the global level. How the modules negotiate and select a coherent task among many competing tasks is thus a critical problem for the control of self-reconfigurable robots. This paper presents a distributed algorithm called DISTINCT to solve this challenging problem and show that it can be successfully applied to the CONRO self-reconfigurable robots. A discussion how to apply DISTINCT to other types of distributed systems such as sensor network, swarm robots, or multi-agent systems is also given.

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ICRA Conference 2002 Conference Paper

Distributed and Dynamic Task Reallocation in Robot Organizations

Wei-Min Shen
Behnam Salemi

Task reallocation in a multi-robot organization is a process that distributes a decomposed global task to individual robots. This process must be distributed and dynamic because it relies on critical information that can only be obtained during mission execution. The paper presents a representation for this challenging problem and proposes an algorithm that allows member robots to trade tasks and responsibilities autonomously. Preliminary results show that such an algorithm can indeed improve the efficiency of organizational performance and construct a locally optimal (hill climbing) task allocation during mission execution.

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ICRA Conference 2001 Conference Paper

Hormone-Controlled Metamorphic Robots

Behnam Salemi
Wei-Min Shen
Peter M. Will

Metamorphic robots with shape-changing capabilities provide a powerful and flexible approach to complex tasks in unstructured environments. However, due to their dynamic topology and decentralized configuration, metamorphic robots demand control mechanisms that go beyond those used by conventional robots. This paper builds on our previous results of hormone-based control, and develops a novel distributed control algorithm called CELL that can select, synchronize, and execute gaits and other reconfiguration actions without assuming any global configuration knowledge. This algorithm is flexible enough to deal with changes of configuration, and can resolve conflicts between locally selected actions and manage multiple active hormones for producing coherent global effects.

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ICRA Conference 1998 Conference Paper

Building integrated Mobile Robots for Soccer Competition

Wei-Min Shen
Jafar Adibi
Rogelio Adobbati
Bonghan Cho
Ali Erdem
Hadi Moradi
Behnam Salemi
Sheila Tejada

Robot soccer competition provides an excellent opportunity for robotics research. In particular, robot players in a soccer game must perform real-time visual recognition, navigate in a dynamic field, track moving objects, collaborate with teammates, and strike the ball in the correct direction. All these tasks demand robots that are autonomous (sensing, thinking, and acting as independent creatures), efficient (functioning under time and resource constraints), cooperative (collaborating with each other to accomplish tasks that are beyond individual's capabilities), and intelligent (reasoning and planing actions and perhaps learning from experience). Furthermore, all these capabilities must be integrated into a single and complete system. To build such integrated robots, we should use different approaches from those employed in separate research disciplines. This paper describes our experience (problems and solutions) in this aspect for building soccer robots. Our robots share the same general architecture and basic hardware, but they have integrated abilities to play different roles and utilize different strategies in their behavior. Our philosophy in building these robots is to use the least possible sophistication to make them as robust as possible. In RoboCup97, our Dreamteam robots performed well (scored 8 of 9 goals of all teams in the league) and won the world championship in the middle-sized robot league.

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