Publications

I. Vallivaara (2008) A Team Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm for The Multiple Travelling Salesmen Problem with MinMax Objective, Proc. The 27th IASTED International Conference on Modelling, Identification, and Control (MIC 2008), Feb 11 – 13, Innsbruck, Austria. [Full text]
A. Kemppainen (2008), T. Mäkelä , J. Haverinen and J. Röning. An Experimental Environment for Optimal Spatial Sampling in a Multi-Robot System. The 10th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-10), Baden Baden, Germany. [Full text]
D. Muñoz Martinez, J. Haverinen and J. Roning (2008) Sensor and connectivity board (SCB) for mobile robots, Proc. 11th International Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference (BEC 2008), 6-8 Oct, Tallinn, Estonia. [Full text]
J Haverinen and A. Kemppainen (2008) Self-localization by utilizing the ambient magnetic field, Proc. 5th International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CIRAS 2008), June 19 - 21, Linz, Austria. [Full text]
J. Riekki, X. Su, and J. Haverinen (2008) Connecting Resource-Constrained Robots to Knowledge-based Systems, Proc. Modelling, Identification, and Control – 2008 (MIC 2008), Feb 11 – 13, Innsbruck, Austria. [Full text]
Abdul Haseeb, Peep Kungas and Mihhail Matskin, Mediator-based Distributed Web Services Discovery and Invocation for Infrastructure-less Mobile Dynamic Systems. In the proceedings of 4th International IEEE Conference of Next generation Web services practices (NWeSP’08), October 2008, Seoul South Korea.

Abstract: Mobile autonomous systems like robot swarms or mobile software agents operate in a dynamic environment pertaining self-organization, self-configuration and heterogeneity of computing entities. In such settings there is a need for autonomic publishing and discovery of resources and just-in-time integration for on-the-fly service consumption without any a priori knowledge of available services both within the execution environment and from the outside world. We propose a mediator-based distributed Web services discovery and invocation middleware. Moreover we present experimental results on an implemented robot swarm simulation environment. We propose a conceptual classification of computing entities on the basis of communication capabilities and conceptual overlay formation for query propagation. Our approach provides a loose coupling in terms of space and time and uses both Internet-based communication and RDF-based communication via messages mediators/post-boxes between entities when inter-communication between entities is not possible.
Abdul Haseeb, Mihhail Matskin and Peep Kungas, Light-Weight Decentralized Autonomic Web Service Discovery for Systems with Heterogeneous Communication Capabilities, In the proceedings of 12th IASTED International Conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications (IMSA’08), August 2008, Hawaii, USA

Abstract: Interoperability between autonomous systems like robot swarm or mobile software agents rely on effective and seamless communication. Such mobile and dynamic environments pertain self-organization and self-configuration of computing entities, a need for autonomic publishing and discovery of resources, and communication from and to outside world. Furthermore, such systems are attributed by heterogeneous communication capabilities of various computing entities. We take Web services approach for Robot Swarm based on robotic communication capabilities and propose a collaborative and decentralized services discovery and management middleware. Our approach provides a loose coupling in terms of space and time and uses both Internet based communication and RFID tags as message postboxes for communication between Robots when communication over the Internet is not available.
Abdul Haseeb, Peep Kungas and Mihhail Matskin, Semantic Middleware for Robotic Swarm Interaction. In the proceedings of IASTED, Modeling, Identification and Control conference (MIC’08), February 2008, Innsbruck, Austria.

Abstract: In this paper we propose a semantic middleware architecture and communication support for environments with swarm robots. Our main assumption is that robots can communicate via wireless networks while we don’t assume high processing power in the robots. Basic advantage of the proposed middleware is the extension of robots’ capabilities via access to semantic information and powerful processing engines. The architecture is conformant with main standard solutions and allows re-using intelligent functionality implemented in the external world.
Abdul Haseeb, Mihhail Matskin and Peep Kungas,DeLP based Semantic Location Lattice for Intelligent Robotic Navigation,ICAI'08 - The 2008 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, CSREA press, Las Vegas,2008

Abstract: Location models require a well-defined representation of spatial connectivity and hierarchical relationship between different spatial concepts; and are fundamental for location navigation, location based services and contextual query responses. Current location models rely on an a-priori knowledge of surrounding environment and mostly the semantics of relationships are over-looked. In this paper we propose an incremental semantic spatial relationship building approach for robotic agents based on formal concept analysis and defeasible reasoning. We consider a number of cases in which an autonomous robot with incomplete information about the environment can perform reasoning and update its location navigation. We use contextual information for establishing strength of partial order relationship between discovered concepts of robotic navigation/computing environment.
Riina Maigre, Peep Küngas, Mihhail Matskin, Enn Tyugu. Handling Large Web Services Models in a Federated Governmental Information System, The Third International Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services, ICIW 2008, June 8-13, 2008 - Athens, Greece (a best paper award)

Abstract: Experiments with large service models of a federated governmental information system are described. Large syntactic Web service models are being used for automatic composition of services in an e- government information system. A visual tool developed in software environment CoCoViLa has been used for handling syntactic service models and synthesis of compound services. For a given specification and a goal, the tool synthesizes a program that generates a service description in OWL-S and BPEL.
Küngas, Peep; Matskin, Mihhail. Interaction and Potential Synergy between Commercial and Governmental Web Services - a Case Study. I: SERVICES 2007, Proceedings of 2007 IEEE Congress on Services: IEEE Computer Society 2007. ISBN 0-7695-2926-7. pp. 1-8

Abstract: Recent progress in the field of Web services has resulted in deployment of a significant number of Web services. Furthermore, it is expected that the number of available Web services will constantly grow in the following years. Due to the high number of available Web services, it is a hard task for developers and business analysts to choose which Web services are most suitable for integration. However, despite the increased academic and commercial interest to Web services, there is currently no survey available analysing most relevant Web services. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, there is no publicly available study analysing the structure and potential synergy between commercial and governmental Web services. In this paper we target these shortcomings by providing a case study of automated Web service composition for semantically annotated commercial and governmental Web services. We propose a method for identifying most applicable Web services and demonstrate it on a case study. We also analyse interaction and potential synergy between commercial and governmental Web services.
Antti Nurminen. Mobile 3D City Maps. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications July/August 2008
Antti Nurminen. Managing dynamic entities in mobile, urban virtual environments. Journal of WSCG, vol 16, no 1-3, 2008
Antti Oulasvirta, Sara Estlander and Antti Nurminen. Embodied interaction with a 3D versus 2D mobile map. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Special Issue on Mobile Spatial Interaction, 2008
Antti Nurminen and Antti Oulasvirta. Designing Navigation in 3D Mobile Maps. In Meng, L., Zipf, A. and Winter, S. (eds.) Map-based Mobile Services. 2008. Springer
Antti Nurminen. Mobile, hardware-accelerated urban 3D maps in 3G networks. ACM Web3D '07

Abstract: 3D maps can visualize static and dynamic features of real environments, and act as 3D gateways to location-based information. Insufficient network speed has been a major bottleneck for dynamic download of 3D content for mobile devices. 3G network technologies promise to solve this issue, allowing faster response times and higher data rates. Similarly, mobile 3D graphics hardware should provide a dramatic increase in rendering speed. We examine wireless IP network properties, and develop an optimized network scheme suited for navigation purposes. The presented system allows free roaming in the 3D scene, while progressively downloading 3D data. For case platforms, we use two 3G Symbian smart phones, one with 3D hardware and one without. Network, 3D rendering and overall application performances are measured. For a scalable 3D engine, 3D hardware improves the rendering performance by over an order of magnitude. By using a compressed network protocol and efficiently formatted 3D data, a textured but lightweight 3D city can be progressively downloaded in 3G networks fast and without degrading application responsiveness.
T. Tammet, J. Vain, A. Kuusik. Using RFID tags for robot swarm cooperation“. WSEAS Transactions on Systems, 5(5), pp. 1121 - 1128. 2006.
Vain, J.; Tammet, T.; Kuusik, A.; Juurik, S. (2008). Towards scalable proofs of robot swarm dependability. In: BEC 2008 : 2008 International Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference : Proceedings: 11th Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference, Tallinn University of Technology, October 6-8, 2008, Tallinn, Estonia. IEEE copyright, 2008, pp. 199 - 202. [.PPT Slides]

Abstract: The concept of robot swarm has demonstrated its relevance in many safety critical applications as a cost-effective solution providing natural fault-tolerance by large number of mutually replacing agents. A critical factor to the swarm functionality is the high complexity of intra swarm coordination. We propose a fully distributed coordination algorithm that uses parameters like bidding distance and random waiting time between decision and action. Another key result is a formal method for predicting the success of swarm missions that rely on given coordination algorithm. The scalability of the model checking based proof method is addressed and a state symmetry based solution proposed
T.Tammet, J.Vain, A.Kuusik, A.Puusepp. RFID-based Communication for a Self-Organizing Robot Swarm. Proceedings: Second IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems SASO2008, Venice, Italy October 20-24, 2008. IEEE Computer Society, 2008, pp.

Abstract: We investigate the practical questions of building a selforganising robot swarm, using the iRobot Roomba cleaning robot as an experimental platform. Our goal is to employ self-organisation for enhancing the cleaning efficiency of a Roomba swarm. The implementation uses RFID tags both for object and location-based task recognition as well as graffiti- or stigmata-style communication between robots. Easily modifiable rule systems are used for object ontologies and automatic task generation. Long-term planning and central coordination are avoided.
Vain, J.; Tammet, T.; Kuusik, A.; Reilent, E. (2008). Software architecture for swarm mobile robots. In: BEC 2008 : 2008 International Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference : Proceedings: 11th Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference, Tallinn University of Technology, October 6-8, 2008, Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn: Tallinn University of Technology,IEEE copyright, 2008, pp. 231 - 234.

Abstract: Software architectures of public service robots are usually targeted to improve the control quality of a single device. The robot software architecture optimized for cooperative operation of swarm devices is presented in the paper. The agent based architecture is knowledge processing and exchange centric and is designed around a universal RDF-based data model.
Vain, J.; Raiend, K.; Kull, A.; Ernits, J. (2007). Synthesis of test purpose directed reactive planning tester for nondeterministic systems (extended abstract). In: NWTP'07/FLACOS'07 Workshop Proceedings: Nordic Workshop in Programming Theory 2007, Oslo, 10.-12. oktoober, 2007. (Eds.) Johnsen, E. B.; Owe, O.; Schneider G.. Oslo: University of Oslo, 2007,pp. 55 - 57. [.PPT Slides]

Abstract:In this paper we propose a balance between the tradeofs of using a simple heuristic and the exhaustive planning methods for on-the-y testing. We apply the principles of reactive planning to the problem of test planning under uncertainty. Reactive planning operates in a timely fashion and hence can cope with is computed at every step, based on the current context. Instead of producing a complete test plan with branches (test tree), a set of decision rules is produced. We construct these rules by offine analysis based on the given IUT model and the test purpose.
Vain, J.: Raiend, K.; Kull, A.; Ernits, J. (2007). Synthesis of test purpose directed reactive planning tester for nondeterministic systems. In: ASE'07 : 2007 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, Atlanta, Georgia, November 5-9, 2007, proceedings: 22nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. ACM Press, 2007, 363 - 372.

Abstract: We describe a model-based construction of an online tester for black-box testing of the implementation under test (IUT). The external behaviour of the IUT is modelled as an output observable nondeterministic EFSM with the assumption that all transition paths are feasible. A test purpose is attributed to the IUT model by a set of Boolean variables called traps that are used to measure the progress of the test run. These variables are associated with the transitions of the IUT model. The situation where all traps have been reached means that the test purpose has been achieved. We present a way to construct a tester that at runtime selects a suboptimal test path from trap to trap by finding the shortest path to the next unvisited trap. The principles of reactive planning are implemented in the form of the decision rules of selecting the shortest paths at runtime. The decision rules are constructed in advance from the IUT model and the test purpose. Preliminary experimental results confirm that this method clearly outperforms random choice and is better than the anti-ant algorithm in terms of resultant test sequence length to achieve the test purpose.
Derrick, J.; Vain, J. (Eds.) (2007). Formal Techniques for Networked and Distributed Systems - FORTE 2007 : 27th IFIP WG 6.1 International Conference, Tallinn, Estonia, June 27-29, 2007, Proceedings. Berlin: Springer [Contents]
Kirt, Toomas (2008). Fast and adaptive scheduling in ad hoc networks. In: BEC 2008 : 2008 International Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference : Proceedings: 11th Biennial Baltic Electronics Conference, Tallinn University of Technology, October 6-8, 2008, Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn: Tallinn University of Technology, 2008,pp. 251 - 254.
Giulio Zecca, Paul Couderc, Michel Banâtre, and Roberto Beraldi, “Cooperation in a Swarm of Robots Using RFID Landmarks,” in International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments (ROSE). IEEE, Oct. 2008. [Pdf version from the ACES page of INRIA website] [Slides (.PDF)]

Abstract: In a world that is giving prominence to ubiquitous computing, a classical standalone robot, though as complex, specialised and efficient as it may be, is not suitable for a distributed environment. The aim is to have knowledge and computing power diffused in the environment, exploiting the collaboration of simple, flexible and cost-effective robots. Collective intelligence increases when each one communicates basic information about its local state, to update the global knowledge.
An open research problem is the cooperation among multiple entities in a distributed environment. Our proposal is to have robots with low capabilities that can learn information and instructions from on-site RFID landmarks to place themselves in formation, synchronise with other robots in the area, and finally carry out a cooperative task.
Damien Martin-Guillerez, Michel Banâtre, and Paul Couderc, “Recovery in Autonomous Robot Swarms,” in European RObotics Symposium, EUROS 2008. Springer, 2008. [SpringerLink] [Slides (.PDF)]

A swarm of robots is composed of several small and simple robots that can communicate to perform complex tasks. Those robots are subject to failures: battery outage, hardware destruction, or hardware failure. When a robot fails, its whole state is lost. The task realized by this robot needs to be restarted then the swarm might need some data from the failed robot. Even when this data is not needed for restarting the process, losing this data can entail a lot of cost for the swarm.
Ensuring state backup of the robots is, somehow, very useful. This can be done by a general wireless coverage. However, this coverage can be difficult and expensive to deploy. To address this issue, a collaborative backup system uses encounters of each robot as temporary backup points to save its internal state. In this paper, we present a collaborative backup system for swarm of robots.
A. Baglietto, G. Cannata, F. Capezio, A. Grosso, and R. Zaccaria, A Multi-Agent Control Architecture For Large Scale Multirobot System, International Conference on Modelling, Identification, and Control (MIC 2008). [.PPT Slides]

Abstract - As research progresses in distributed robotic systems, more and more aspects of multi-robot systems are being explored. This dissertation focuses on multi-robot control systems and provides the model of an agent-based control architecture following the research that is ongoing in the field of distributed mobile robot systems. In this work, the agent technology is proposed as a possible approach to the design of multi-robot systems. Autonomous agents, or sometimes called intelligent agents, can effectively combine all the advantages of distributed systems with advanced robot control support and artificial intelligence techniques. The coordination of the multi-robot system is based on agent interaction and negotiation, and a communication infrastructure based on open web standards is provided. This paper is the result of the work done within the ROBOSWARM Project.
M. Baglietto, G. Cannata, F. Capezio, A. Grosso, A. Sgorbissa, R. Zaccaria, PatrolGRAPH: a Distributed Algorithm for Multi-Robot Patrolling, IAS10 - The 10th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Baden Baden, Germany, July 23-25 2008. [.PPT Slides]

Abstract - This paper describes PatrolGRAPH, a novel real-time search algorithm which has been specifically designed to solve the “patrolling problem”, i.e., the problem of repeatedly visiting a set of specific locations in the environment. The algorithm has extremely low requirements in terms of computational power, does not require inter-robot communication, and can even be implemented on memoryless robots. Moreover, the algorithm is proven to be statistically complete as well as easily implementable on real, marketable robot swarms for real-world applications.
M. Baglietto, G. Cannata, F. Capezio, and A. Sgorbissa, Multi-Robot Continuous Coverage of Significant Locations in the Environment, The 9th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 2008 (DARS2008), November 17-19, 2008 Tsukuba International Congress Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
M. Baglietto, G. Cannata, F. Capezio, A. Grosso, A. Sgorbissa, and R. Zaccaria, A Context Aware Multi-robot Coordination System based on RFID technology, PerCom 2009 Seventh Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Galveston, Texas, March 9-13, 2009. (Pending)

Abstract - This paper presents a novel approach for multi-robot coordination based both on coordinated navigation and task allocation method. The proposed approach exploits RFID technology for implementing a context aware information system which is the base of the coordination strategies; it has extremely low requirements in terms of computational power, does not require direct robot-robot communication. Moreover, an ad hoc agent based control architecture is defined to implement the proposed coordination mechanisms on robots in both simulation and real applications.
Giulio Zecca, Paul Couderc, Michel Banâtre, and Roberto Beraldi,
“Swarm Robot Synchronization Using RFID Tags”,
in Seventh Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom). IEEE, Mar. 2009. Pdf version from the ACES page of INRIA website

Abstract: The last progress in the pervasive computing field has led to the distribution of knowledge and computational power in the environment, rather than condensing it in a single, powerful entity. This allows agents to behave like insects in a swarm, that can fulfil a task communicating directly or indirectly among them.
Following this vision of Ambient Intelligence, our work proposes a straightforward solution to coordinate a swarm of robots that have low computational capabilities. All the information and instructions are found in RFID tags that are used as a pervasive memory distributed in the environment. These robots exploit ubiquitous computing to make a formation in space, synchronise with team mates in the same zone, and finally complete a cooperative task.
Before implementing the solution in a real scenario, we show the validation of our algorithm in a simulation environment.
Mokarizadeh, Shahab; Grosso, Alberto; Matskin, Mihhail; Kungas, Peep; Haseeb, Abdul; Applying Semantic Web Service Composition for Action Planning in Multi-robot Systems; Internet and Web Applications and Services, In Proc. ICIW 2009, IEEE Computer Society press,, Venice, 24-28 May 2009 Page(s):3 pp 70 - 376
M. Baglietto, G. Cannata, F. Capezio, A. Grosso, A. Sgorbissa, and R. Zaccaria (2009) A Context Aware Multi-robot Coordination System based on RFID technology, PerCom 2009 Seventh Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Galveston, Texas, March 9-13, 2009. (Pending)