Planetary Colonization with Swarm Robotics

Team Composition

Yebraksi Kouzoukian (CpE)

• C and Java Languages, Certified CompTIA A+ professional
• Technical contributions to project is by providing
• Expected roles is to do what is assigned for me by my team and bring up my contribution to finish our project in the desired results.

Dyann Ramos Oreas (CpE)

• Experience in and familiar with various computer languages (e.g. C/C++, Java, Python)
• Built some types of self-driven robots before
• Helping out with hardware and software aspects of project(s)

Tyler Stevens (CpE)

• Comfortable with C/C++, experienced with Android, and some familiarity with parallel programming
• Will contribute through software design and development
• Team captain (coordinate with mentor, submit assignments)

Team Information

We have worked together closely in many other courses, and we’re confident that we will be able to cooperate successfully. All of us are interested in software development and are excited by the two project options that we’re considering.

Faculty Mentor

• Dr. Aparna Chandramowlishwaran, Assistant Professor in EECS Department
• One of our team members had a previous course with Dr. Chandramowlishwaran, and she works on parallel computing projects that may be applicable to one of our project ideas.
• Our team first approached Dr. Chandramowlishwaran by email on August 25 and in person on September 28. She agreed to work with us, and we didn’t speak with any other faculty.
• We presented our potential projects, and she was interested in both. She asked us to do more research to decide which one is more interesting and can be reasonably completed in limited time.

Swarm Robotics and Planetary Colonization

• Summary: Using a swarm robotics simulator (such as ARGoS or Player/Stage), we will design algorithms to solve group-coordination problems associated with building a settlement on Mars (foraging for resources, mapping an area, building simple structures, and distributed search and rescue). Both simulators allow for the creation of custom environments and physics simulations, and we can impose additional constraints on robot movement and energy usage to mimic real-life conditions.
• Idea Source: One of our team members has been interested in swarm robotics since seeing an MIT project about self-assembling robots years ago. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, recently made an announcement about taking humanity to Mars, and we believe that swarm robotics could be an important technology in settling other planets.
• Project Value: Swarm robotics is becoming increasingly popular as a solution to certain problems, and the colonization of other planets is receiving widespread attention as the population of earth increases and as space travel becomes cheaper. It is likely that we will rely on robotic systems to build the structures we will need to survive on other planets.
• Feasibility: Simulating swarm behavior instead of building physical robots is very cost-effective, and each team member (including our mentor) has several years of software development experience. Tyler has some experience with parallel programming and design, and as mentioned below, Dyann and Yebraksi have each worked with robotic design in other classes.
• Disciplines: Though ARGoS and Player/Stage are both software tools, they simulate sensors, motors and other electronics used in robotics. We will rely on our software experience and Dyann and Yebraksi’s experience with self-driving robots to implement our solutions. Dr. Chandramowlishwaran will be able to assist us with parallel algorithms and networking.