Table Of ContentSpringer Tracts in Advanced Robotics
Volume 47
Editors:BrunoSiciliano·OussamaKhatib·FransGroen
Srinivas Akella, Nancy M. Amato,
Wesley H. Huang, Bud Mishra (Eds.)
Algorithmic Foundation of
Robotics VII
Selected Contributions of the Seventh
International Workshop on the Algorithmic
Foundations of Robotics
ABC
ProfessorBrunoSiciliano, Dipartimento diInformatica eSistemistica, Università diNapoli Federico II,
ViaClaudio21,80125Napoli,Italy,E-mail:[email protected]
ProfessorOussamaKhatib,RoboticsLaboratory,DepartmentofComputerScience,StanfordUniversity,
Stanford,CA94305-9010,USA,E-mail:[email protected]
Professor Frans Groen, Department of Computer Science, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403,
1098SJAmsterdam,TheNetherlands,E-mail:[email protected]
Editors
SrinivasAkella WesleyH.Huang
DepartmentofComputerScience AppliedPerception,Inc.
RensselaerPolytechnicInstitute 220ExecutiveDrive,Suite400
110EighthStreet CranberryTownship,PA16066
Troy,NewYork12180 E-Mail:[email protected]
USA
E-Mail:[email protected]
BudMishra
DepartmentofComputerScience
NancyM.Amato NewYorkUniversity
DepartmentofComputerScience CourantInst,251MercerSt
TexasA&MUniversity NewYork,NY10012
CollegeStation,Texas77843 USA
USA E-Mail:[email protected]
E-Mail:[email protected]
ISBN978-3-540-68404-6 e-ISBN978-3-540-68405-3
DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-68405-3
SpringerTractsinAdvancedRobotics ISSN1610-7438
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008927063
(cid:2)c2008Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is
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EditorialAdvisoryBoard
HermanBruyninckx,KULeuven,Belgium
RajaChatila,LAAS,France
HenrikChristensen,GeorgiaInstituteofTechnology,USA
PeterCorke,CSIRO,Australia
PaoloDario,ScuolaSuperioreSant’AnnaPisa,Italy
RüdigerDillmann,UniversitätKarlsruhe,Germany
KenGoldberg,UCBerkeley,USA
JohnHollerbach,UniversityofUtah,USA
MakotoKaneko,OsakaUniversity,Japan
LydiaKavraki,RiceUniversity,USA
SukhanLee,SungkyunkwanUniversity,Korea
TimSalcudean,UniversityofBritishColumbia,Canada
SebastianThrun,StanfordUniversity,USA
YangshengXu,ChineseUniversityofHongKong,PRC
Shin’ichiYuta,TsukubaUniversity,Japan
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Foreword
By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major transfor-
mation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about by
the maturity of the field and the advances in its related technologies. From a
largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the
challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to
safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces,and com-
munities, providing support in services, entertainment, education, healthcare,
manufacturing, and assistance.
Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has
producedisrevealingamuchwiderrangeofapplicationsreachingacrossdiverse
research areas and scientific disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neuro-
sciences, virtual prototyping, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among
others.Inreturn,thechallengesofthenew emergingareasareprovinganabun-
dant source of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at
the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen.
The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is to
bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on
thebasisoftheirsignificanceandquality.Itisourhopethatthewiderdissemina-
tion of researchdevelopments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations
among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this
rapidly growing field.
This volume is the outcome of the seventh edition of the biennial Workshop
Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR). Edited by S. Akella, N.M. Am-
ato, W.H. Huang, and B. Mishra, the book offers a collection of a broad range
of topics in advanced robotics. The contents of these contributions represent a
cross-section of the current state of research from one particular aspect: algo-
rithms,andhowtheyreflectonthetheoreticalbasisofsubsequentdevelopments.
Validation of algorithms, design concepts, or techniques is the common thread
running through this focused collection.
VIII Foreword
Rich by topics and authoritative contributors, WAFR culminates with this
unique reference on the current developments and new directions in the field of
algorithmic foundations. A fine addition to the series!
Naples, Italy Bruno Siciliano
April 2008 STAR Editor
Preface
Algorithms are a fundamental component of robotic systems: they control or
reason about motion and perception in the physical world. They receive input
from noisy sensors, consider geometric and physical constraints, and operate
on the world through imprecise actuators. The design and analysis of robot
algorithms therefore raises a unique combination of questions in control theory,
computational and differential geometry, and computer science.
The Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR) is a
multi-disciplinarysingle-trackworkshopwithsubmittedpapersandinvitedtalks
on advances on algorithmic problems in robotics. It has been held every other
year since 1994 and has an established reputation as one of the most (if not the
most) important venues for presenting algorithmic work related to robotics.
As youwillsee,the topicsofinterestinWAFRareverybroadsincethe focus
isonalgorithmdevelopmentandanalysisratherthanonspecificproblemsorap-
plications. Increasingly, robotics algorithms are finding use in areas far beyond
the traditional scope of robots. One of the most important aspects of WAFR
is its informal atmosphere which allows a frank exchange of new, previously
unpublished ideas. In particular,WAFR has been an occasionfor graduate stu-
dentstomeetandinteractwithmoreseniorresearcherswhomanytimesarenot
accessible to students at the larger robotics conferences.
The seventh WAFR was held July 16–18, 2006, in New York City at the
Tribeca Grand Hotel in lower Manhattan.WAFR 2006 had a record number of
submissionsandarecordattendancewith106registrants,justover50students.
Inadditiontothe 32contributedpaperscontainedinthisvolume,the workshop
featured six invited speakers, including both researchers who defined the field
and who are today defining the frontiers of the field – in several cases the same
people: James Gimzewski (UCLA), Jessica K. Hodgins (CMU), Jean-Claude
Latombe (Stanford), Toma´s Lozano-P´erez (MIT), Jacob Schwartz (NYU), and
Sebastian Thrun (Stanford).
WAFR 2006 had a very strong program of 32 contributed technical papers.
Thesepaperswereselectedfrom62submissionsbyarigorousevaluationprocess,
with each submission being reviewed by at least 3 members of the program
X Preface
committee. The authors of selected papers were invited to submit expanded
versionsoftheirWAFR2006paperstoaspecialissueoftheInternationalJournal
of Robotics Research.
We areextremely gratefulto the programcommittee for their carefuland in-
sightfulreviews.Theprogramcommitteememberswere:O.BurchanBayazit,An-
tonioBicchi,GregChirikjian,MikeErdmann,DanHalperin,HirohisaHirukawa,
Seth Hutchinson, Lydia Kavraki,James Kuffner, Vijay Kumar, Jean-Paul Lau-
mond,SteveLaValle,MingLin,YoshiNakamura,DineshPai,ElonRimon,Jack
Snoeyink,DezhenSong,FrankvanderStappen,andGauravSukhatme.
This meeting would not have been possible without the dedicated work and
assistanceofmanyindividualsandorganizations.We havemanythankstogive:
to Kay Jones from Texas A&M for overallsupport and logistics; to the student
volunteers from Rensselaer and from Texas A&M for their diligent work; to
our institutions (NYU, Rensselaer, and Texas A&M) for their support; to the
NationalScienceFoundationforthestudenttravelgrantsthatprovidedsupport
to 38 students; to Microsoft for sponsoring the banquet cruise; and, of course,
to the WAFR steering committee for their advice and suggestions.
Thank you all for making WAFR 2006 a WAFR to remember!
Srinivas Akella
Nancy M. Amato
Wesley H. Huang
Bud Mishra
Contents
Part I: Probabilistic Roadmap Methods (PRMs)
Quantitative Analysis of Nearest-Neighbors Search in
High-Dimensional Sampling-Based Motion Planning
Erion Plaku, Lydia E. Kavraki 3
Path Deformation Roadmaps
L´eonard Jaillet, Thierry Sim´eon 19
Workspace-Based Connectivity Oracle: An Adaptive Sampling
Strategy for PRM Planning
Hanna Kurniawati, David Hsu 35
Incremental Map Generation (IMG)
Dawen Xie, Marco Morales, Roger Pearce, Shawna Thomas,
Jyh-Ming Lien, Nancy M. Amato 53
Part II: Planning for Movable and Moving Obstacles
Caging Polygons with Two and Three Fingers
Mostafa Vahedi, A. Frank van der Stappen 71
An Effective Framework for Path Planning Amidst Movable
Obstacles
Dennis Nieuwenhuisen, A. Frank van der Stappen,
Mark H. Overmars 87
Planning the Shortest Safe Path Amidst Unpredictably
Moving Obstacles
Jur van den Berg, Mark Overmars 103
XII Contents
Planning Among Movable Obstacles with Artificial
Constraints
Mike Stilman, James J. Kuffner 119
Part III: Navigation, SLAM, and Error Models for Filtering/Control
Inferring and Enforcing Relative Constraints in SLAM
Kristopher R. Beevers, Wesley H. Huang 139
Second-Order Theory of Error Propagation on Motion Groups
Yunfeng Wang, Gregory S. Chirikjian 155
Extensive Representations and Algorithms for Nonlinear
Filtering and Estimation
Ethan Stump, Ben Grocholsky, Vijay Kumar 169
Part IV: Geometric Computations and Applications
An Experimental Study of Weighted k-Link Shortest Path
Algorithms
Ovidiu Daescu, Joseph S.B. Mitchell, Simeon Ntafos,
James D. Palmer, Chee K. Yap 187
Low-Discrepancy Curves and Efficient Coverage of Space
Subramanian Ramamoorthy, Ram Rajagopal, Qing Ruan,
Lothar Wenzel 203
The Snowblower Problem
Esther M. Arkin, Michael A. Bender, Joseph S.B. Mitchell,
Valentin Polishchuk 219
Stratified Deformation Space and Path Planning for a Planar
Closed Chain with Revolute Joints
L. Han, L. Rudolph, J. Blumenthal, I. Valodzin 235
Part V: Motion Planning
Competitive Disconnection Detection in On-Line Mobile
Robot Navigation
Yoav Gabriely, Elon Rimon 253
A Simple Path Non-existence Algorithm Using C-Obstacle
Query
Liangjun Zhang, Young J. Kim, Dinesh Manocha 269
