Two Algorithms for the Movements of Robotic Bodyguard Teams

In this paper we consider a scenario where one or more robotic bodyguards are protecting an important individual (VIP) moving in a public space against harassment or harm from unarmed civilians. In this scenario, the main objective of the robots is to position themselves such that at any given moment they provide maximum physical cover for the VIP. The robots need to follow the VIP in its movement and take into account the movements of the civilians as well. The environment can also contain obstacles which present challenges to movement but also provide natural cover. We designed two algorithms for the movement of the bodyguard robots: Threat Vector Resolution (TVR) for a single robot and Quadrant Load Balancing (QLB) for teams of bodyguard robots. We evaluated the proposed approaches against rigid formations in a simulation study.

[1]  Gürkan Solmaz,et al.  Optimizing event coverage in theme parks , 2014, Wirel. Networks.

[2]  Ladislau Bölöni,et al.  Modeling the Interaction Between Mixed Teams of Humans and Robots and Local Population for a Market Patrol Task , 2012, FLAIRS Conference.

[3]  Kevin Blankespoor,et al.  BigDog, the Rough-Terrain Quadruped Robot , 2008 .

[4]  Alan K. Mackworth,et al.  Multi-robot repeated area coverage , 2013, Auton. Robots.

[5]  Zhi Yuan,et al.  Scalable Randomized Patrolling for Securing Rapid Transit Networks , 2013, IAAI.

[6]  Bo An,et al.  PROTECT: a deployed game theoretic system to protect the ports of the United States , 2012, AAMAS.

[7]  Ladislau Bölöni,et al.  Towards learning movement in dense crowds for a socially-aware mobile robot , 2014 .

[8]  Milind Tambe,et al.  GUARDS - Innovative Application of Game Theory for National Airport Security , 2011, IJCAI.

[9]  Damla Turgut,et al.  YAES: a modular simulator for mobile networks , 2005, MSWiM '05.

[10]  Milind Tambe,et al.  Security and Game Theory: IRIS – A Tool for Strategic Security Allocation in Transportation Networks , 2011, AAMAS 2011.

[11]  Nobuto Matsuhira,et al.  Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform V-REP: A Versatile 3D Robot Simulator , 2010, SIMPAR.

[12]  Sarit Kraus,et al.  Multi-Robot Adversarial Patrolling: Facing a Full-Knowledge Opponent , 2011, J. Artif. Intell. Res..

[13]  Branislav Bosanský,et al.  Transiting areas patrolled by a mobile adversary , 2010, Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games.

[14]  M. Maurette,et al.  Mars Rover Autonomous Navigation , 2003, Auton. Robots.

[15]  Milind Tambe,et al.  TRUSTS: Scheduling Randomized Patrols for Fare Inspection in Transit Systems , 2012, IAAI.

[16]  Alex Fukunaga,et al.  Cooperative mobile robotics: antecedents and directions , 1995 .

[17]  Sarit Kraus,et al.  Deployed ARMOR protection: the application of a game theoretic model for security at the Los Angeles International Airport , 2008, AAMAS 2008.

[18]  David Portugal,et al.  Distributed multi-robot patrol: A scalable and fault-tolerant framework , 2013, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[19]  Gürkan Solmaz,et al.  Event coverage in theme parks using wireless sensor networks with mobile sinks , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC).