Research

Decentralized Mission Planning for Robotic Networks

Ensure the autonomy of a network of robots to perform persistent missions is a key aspect in robotics applications. Our research is focused on methodologies related to the decentralized task assignment and planning, and task execution control, in order to obtain desidered mission performances.

Relevant Publications

Decentralized Dynamic Task Planning for Heterogeneous Robotic Networks,
D. Di Paola, A. Gasparri, D. Naso, F. L. Lewis,
Autonomous Robots. vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 31-48, Jan 2015.
  [PDF]   [Website]

Decentralized Discrete-Event Modeling and Control of Task Execution for Robotic Networks,
D. Di Paola, A. Gasparri, D. Naso, and F.L. Lewis,
in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2012.
  [PDF]

Modeling and Control of Smart Mobility Systems

Mobility in urban areas is a topic of great importance for any modern city. In this research we study the modeling and the control of shared mobility systems, to guarantee the satisfaction of customers needs via the optimal vehicle-to-customer assignment and the fleet balancing over the city areas.

Relevant Publications

Customer-Oriented Optimal Vehicle Assignment in Mobility-on-Demand Systems,
F. Acquaviva, A. Nùñez, D. Di Paola, A. Rizzo, and B. De Schutter,
in IEEE 18th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2015.

A Novel Formulation for the Distributed Solution of Load Balancing Problems in Mobility On-Demand Systems,
F. Acquaviva, D. Di Paola, and A. Rizzo,
in International Conference on Connected Vehicles and Expo (ICCVE), 2014.
  [PDF]

Decentralized Estimation and Control for Multi Robot Systems

The realization of real-world robotic networks able to perform operations in a decentralized way, is still an open challenge. In this research we study novel estimation and control strategies to solve different robotic tasks such as, cooperative manipulation, target tracking, area coverage, and so on.

Relevant Publications

A Distributed Method for Estimating the Grasping and Inertial Parameters in Cooperative Manipulation,
A. Franchi, A. Petitti, A. Rizzo, and D. Di Paola,
Poster presented at the Workshop on Principles of Multi-Robot Systems, Robotics: Science and Systems (12 Edition), 2015.
  [PDF]

Distributed Kalman Filtering via Node Selection in Heterogeneous Sensor Networks,
D. Di Paola, A. Petitti, A. Rizzo,
International Journal of Systems Science. vol. 46, no. 14, 2015.
  [PDF]   [Website]

Decentralized Connectivity Maintainance in Direct Graphs

Consider a network of robots equipped with limited Field-Of-View sensors. As a consequence, robot-to-robot interactions can be modeled by directed graphs. This significantly limits the applicability of connectivity control algorithms developed for undirected graphs. We therefore propose a novel auction-based framework for the connectivity maintenance of directed graphs.

Relevant Publications

Decentralized Estimation of the Minimum Strongly Connected Subdigraph for Robotic Networks with Limited Field of View,
C.F. Ardito, D. Di Paola, and A. Gasparri,
in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2012.
  [PDF]

Decentralized Topology Control for Robotic Networks with Limited Field of View Sensors,
D. Di Paola, R. De Asmundis, A. Gasparri, and A. Rizzo,
in American Control Conference (ACC), 2012.
  [PDF]