From: roberta@maxine.wpi.edu (Roberta Baker)
Subject: Computer Science Colloquium 4/17
Originator: roberta@maxine.wpi.edu
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Distribution: wpi, ne
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 17:29:58 GMT


                WPI COMPUTER SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM
        Friday, April 17 at 11:00 a.m. in Fuller Labs 311
    *** For directions, send email to roberta@cs.wpi.edu ***
                 
                     Professor S. S. Iyengar
                 Department of Computer Science
                   Louisiana State University

              ROBOT NAVIGATION: DESIGN AND ANALYSIS

This talk describes a new method for robot navigation in unexplored
terrain which requires no prelearned model.  The method involves
making maximal use of available information, recording and
synthesizing information from multiple journeys, and applying concepts
of learning that allow for continuous transition from local-to-
global-path optimality. The presentation is tailored for persons
having a research interest in the design and analysis of autonomous
robots.  Topics covered include a) terrain model consisting of spatial
graphs and Voronoi diagrams; b) concurrent algorithms for autonomous
robot navigation, free of deadlocks and starvation; and c)
implementation of spatial graph data structures and the parallel
algorithms needed to maintain them.

Biographical Information:

Professor Iyengar directs the Robotics Research Laboratory at
Louisiana State University.  Professor Iyengar's research at the RRL
addresses problems that are fundamental to the implementation of
autonomous intelligent machines.  The research is comprehensive,
covering most aspects of intelligent systems.  For example, he has
conducted important work on the problems of intelligent robot
navigation, intelligent sensing, world-modeling using acoustic
sensors, and real-time expert systems for the control of mobile
robots, to name a few.  Many of these projects have involved
collaboration with NASA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Navy-NORDA,
and IPL/Cal-Tech.
 
The long term goal for the RRL is to identify the computational
problems and the types of knowledge that are fundamental to the design
and implementation of robotics systems.  Toward this end, Professor
Iyengar and his group are performing advanced research in the areas of
intelligent sending and vision, spatial planning and navigation,
asynchronous production systems, integration of knowledge sources in
distributed systems, and architectures for the control of
mobile-robots.
 
Professor Iyengar has published over 100 papers in respected journals
and conference proceedings, such as Journal of Robotics Systems,
Communications of the ACM, IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation,
and many others.

He has served as a visiting research scientist at the Robotics and
Artificial Intelligence Group, CESAR Division, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, as a member of the National Science Foundation select
panel for reviewing research proposals on neural networks, as Guest
Editor of a special issue on autonomous systems in IEEE-Computer
Magazine, June 1989, and as a guest editor for a special issue on
image databases in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, May
1988.

Professor S. S. Iyengar
Department of Computer Science
Louisiana State University
Batan Rouge, LA 70803-4020
Phone: (504) 388-3197
E-mail: iyengar@csvax.csc.lsu.edu
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