Author name cluster

Conor McGann

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.

4 papers

2 author rows

AAMAS Conference 2010 Conference Paper

A Systematic Agent Framework for Situated Autonomous Systems

Frederic Py
Kanna Rajan
Conor McGann

We present a formal framework of an autonomous agent asa collection of coordinated control loops, with a recurringsense, plan, act cycle. Our framework manages the information flow within the partitioned structure to ensure consistency in order to direct the flow of goals and observations ina timely manner. The resulting control structure improvesscalability since many details of each controller can be encapsulated within a single control loop. This partitioned agentdesign promises a domain-independent, scalable and robustapproach for control of real-world autonomous robots operating in dynamic environments. We validate our frameworkwith experimental results from deployments in two differentreal-world domains.

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ICRA Conference 2010 Conference Paper

Autonomous door opening and plugging in with a personal robot

Wim Meeussen
Melonee Wise
Stuart Glaser
Sachin Chitta
Conor McGann
Patrick Mihelich
Eitan Marder-Eppstein
Marius Muja

We describe an autonomous robotic system capable of navigating through an office environment, opening doors along the way, and plugging itself into electrical outlets to recharge as needed. We demonstrate through extensive experimentation that our robot executes these tasks reliably, without requiring any modification to the environment. We present robust detection algorithms for doors, door handles, and electrical plugs and sockets, combining vision and laser sensors. We show how to overcome the unavoidable shortcoming of perception by integrating compliant control into manipulation motions. We present a visual-differencing approach to high-precision plug-insertion that avoids the need for high-precision hand-eye calibration.

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ICRA Conference 2008 Conference Paper

A deliberative architecture for AUV control

Conor McGann
Frederic Py
Kanna Rajan
Hans Thomas
Richard Henthorn
Robert S. McEwen

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are an increasingly important tool for oceanographic research demonstrating their capabilities to sample the water column in depths far beyond what humans are capable of visiting, and doing so routinely and cost-effectively. However, control of these platforms to date has relied on fixed sequences for execution of pre-planned actions limiting their effectiveness for measuring dynamic and episodic ocean phenomenon. In this paper we present an agent architecture developed to overcome this limitation through on-board planning using Constraint- based Reasoning. Preliminary versions of the architecture have been integrated and tested in simulation and at sea.

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AAAI Conference 2008 Conference Paper

Adaptive Control for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Conor McGann
Kanna Rajan

We describe a novel integration of Planning with Probabilistic State Estimation and Execution. The resulting system is a unified representational and computational framework based on declarative models and constraintbased temporal plans. The work is motivated by the need to explore the oceans more cost-effectively through the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), requiring them to be goal-directed, perceptive, adaptive and robust in the context of dynamic and uncertain conditions. The novelty of our approach is in integrating deliberation and reaction over different temporal and functional scopes within a single model, and in breaking new ground in oceanography by allowing for precise sampling within a feature of interest using an autonomous robot. The system is general-purpose and adaptable to other ocean going and terrestrial platforms.

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