KU News Release

Sept. 5, 2008
Contact: Jill Hummels, School of Engineering, (785) 864-2934.

KU graduate students win first place in international robotics contest

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas engineering students won first-place awards at the 2008 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Pasadena, Calif.

A seven-person team of computer science graduate students, led by Chris Gifford of McPherson and Russell Webb of Fremont, Calif., took part in the Space Robotics Challenge and won top honors for two tasks associated with the contest.

“The event committee wanted the challenge to be more of a research showcase but also involve autonomous tasks that future planetary robots may perform,” said Gifford.

Planning for this high-tech test of skills began last October. Gifford and Webb, under the guidance of Arvin Agah, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, created and led a robotics course that would address many of the open-ended problems found in the challenge.

“Instead of faculty coming up with the problem, the challenge was provided to us, which gave us direction,” Agah said. “We focused on a novel solution to the question. It is a big enough challenge that the problem is research oriented.”

Participants, which included other major research universities such as Carnegie-Mellon University, Cornell University and the University of Southern California, had to submit an abstract and video of their project in February and were then selected to participate. The KU team spent the entire spring semester working on a system that could replicate robots gathering data on a distant planet.

“The challenge is composed of three main events, one of which is the Sandbox,” Gifford said prior to the team’s departure. “The Sandbox is a simulated planetary environment populated with a lander and multiple objects of varying shape, size and color. The objective is to start on the lander, safely descend onto the surface and perform specific tasks.”

The main challenge the KU team focused on was mapping the features of the 6-meter-square Sandbox, said Gifford.

“The goal of mapping the environment is to build a metric map as fast and as accurately as possible,” he said. “That is why we chose a multi-robot approach, so each robot could simultaneously map independent portions of the environment and merge their individual maps together for a more complete view.”

The team’s decision to create a multi-robot system worked in their favor at the event. During the semester, the students built a larger science robot and several smaller explorer robots. When a motor on the larger robot failed shortly before the competition, the team was able to reconfigure the group of smaller robots to complete their tasks without the need for the larger lead robot.

Each of the small robots was equipped with two devices from Sun Microsystems. One handled communications tasks, the other tracked the positioning of each of the small robots.

“The more information we can gather about our environment to feed in, the better the likelihood we’ll be able to come up with an estimate of where we are,” Webb said. “Getting lost in an unknown environment is bad.”

Funding for the team’s equipment and travel came from the School of Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The team also chose to take a low-cost approach to its system that proved effective and turned heads.

Where most teams in the challenge used laser range finders that can cost $5,000 or more, the KU team created $70 infrared sensor turrets, or IR turrets, that with proper programming can simulate the mapping abilities of a laser range finder. Each turret sported six IR sensors that could be manipulated to provide a 180-degree view.

“Mapping is one of the most complicated tasks that robots can do,” Webb said. “Our approach was to do it on the cheap, and it was successful because we were able to get a pretty good map of the environment from our run. But it certainly wasn’t the most accurate.”

The graduate students now are writing research papers related to their designs, Agah said. And the success of the KU team turned some skeptics into believers.

“The feedback we received about our system was very encouraging,” Gifford said. “As we were the only entry employing multiple robots composed of low-cost and limited computing components, our approach was viewed as unconventional. All other teams utilized one robot to do these tasks, which were considerably larger with much more onboard computing power. Our entire system costs less than one of their ranging sensors.”

The KU team members are listed below by hometown, level in school, major, parents’ names (when available) and previous degrees received:

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence 66046
Daniel Leung, doctoral student in computer science, son of Shiu-Kay Leung and Kit-Leng Chan; bachelor’s degree in computer science from KU, 2002.

MCPHERSON COUNTY
From McPherson 67460
James William Bley, master’s student in computer science; bachelor’s degree in computer science from KU, 2001; McPherson High School.

Chris Gifford, doctoral student in computer science, son of Mike and Dale Gifford; bachelor’s degree in computer science from KU, fall 2005; McPherson High School.

RENO COUNTY
From Buhler 67522
Bryan A. Banz, doctoral student in computer science; bachelor’s degree from Tabor College, Hillsboro, 1997.

CALIFORNIA
From Fremont 94539
Russell William Webb, master’s student in computer science, son of Paul and Jole Webb; bachelor’s degree in computer science from KU, fall 2001; Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, Calif.

ILLINOIS
From Metamora 61548
Joseph Sylvester Makarewicz, doctoral student in electrical engineering, bachelor’s degree from Olivet Nazarene University, Kankakee, Ill., 2007.

SOUTH CAROLINA
From Taylors 29687
Mark Calnon, master’s student in computer science; bachelor's degree from Bob Jones University, Greenville, S.C., 2007.

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