Minimalist Hardware Architectures for Agent Tracking and Guidance

Czarnowski, Justin T.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/24143 Copy

Description

Title

Minimalist Hardware Architectures for Agent Tracking and Guidance

Author(s)

Czarnowski, Justin T.

Issue Date

2011-05-25T14:59:11Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

LaValle, Steven M.

Department of Study

Electrical & Computer Eng

Discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• minimalism
• minimalist hardware architecture
• cyber-physical system (CPS)
• sensing
• counting
• tracking
• actuation
• ergodic
• Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD)
• Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
• Microcontroller
• arduino

Abstract

The philosophy of minimalism in robotics promotes gaining an understanding of sensing and computational requirements for solving a task. This minimalist approach lies in contrast to the common practice of first taking an existing sensory motor system, and only afterwards determining how to apply the robotic system to the task. While it may seem convenient to simply apply existing hardware systems to the task at hand, this design philosophy often proves to be wasteful in terms of energy consumption and cost, along with unnecessary complexity and decreased reliability. While impressive in terms of their versatility, complex robots such as the PR2 (which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars) are impractical for many common applications. Instead, if a specific task is required, sensing and computational requirements can be determined specific to that task, and a clever hardware implementation can be built to accomplish the task. Since this minimalist hardware would be designed around accomplishing the specified task, significant reductions in hardware complexity can be obtained. This can lead to huge advantages in battery life, cost, and reliability. Even if cost is of no concern, battery life is often a limiting factor in many applications. Thus, a minimalist hardware system is critical in achieving the system requirements. In this thesis, we will discuss an implementation of a counting, tracking, and actuation system as it relates to ergodic bodies to illustrate a minimalist design methodology.

Graduation Semester

2011-05

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/24143

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2011 Justin Todd Czarnowski

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