MissionLab v7.0

Latest Version:    7.0.00
Release Date:    07/12/2006
Announcement

The Mobile Robot Laboratory at Georgia Tech is pleased to announce the release of MissionLab v7.0 multiagent robotics mission specification and control software. MissionLab takes high-level military-style plans and executes them with teams of real or simulated robotic vehicles. MissionLab supports execution of multiple robots both in simulation and actual robotics platforms, including device drivers for controlling iRobot's ATRV-Jr and Urban Robot, ActivMedia's AmigoBot and Pioneer AT, and Nomadics Technologies' Nomad 150 & 200. Each vehicle executes its portion of the mission using reactive control techniques developed here at Georgia Tech.


MissionLab System Key Components

  • mlab -- console-like program from which a user monitors the progress of experimental runs of the robot executables
  • CfgEdit -- graphical tool for building robot behaviors - the designer can build complex control structures with the point and click of a mouse
  • cdl -- compiler that translates the configuration description language of the robot missions
  • cnl -- compiler that compiles the configuration network language to generate a C++ code
  • HServer -- hardware server that directly controls all the robot hardware and provides a standard interface for all the robots and sensors
  • CBRServer -- case-based reasoning server that generates a mission plan based on specs provided by the user by retrieving and assembling components of previously stored successful mission plans

Improvements (Since v6.0)
  • Communication sensitive behaviors (communication recovery, communication preservation, and internalized plan) were implemented.
  • HServer's localization capability was improved by incorporating probabilistic sensor fusion methods (Extended Kalman Filter, Particle Filter, etc.).
  • An auction-based task allocation algorithm (Contract-Net Protocol) was integrated into the CBR Wizard in order to improve the multirobot mission specification process.
  • A script-based mission management mechanism (CMDLi), which enables coordination of heterogeneous robots launched from heterogeneous software platforms (Georgia Tech's MissionLab, UPenn's ROCI, and USC's Player/Stage), has been integrated.
  • CBR Wizard's automated mission repair mechanism has been integrated.
  • mlab now supports OpenGL 3D graphic display.
  • MissionLab can be now compiled with gcc 4.1.
  • The installation steps have been greatly improved.
Downloads
  • MissionLab via VMWare Virtualization: distribution (1.8GB) - We now have a VMWare virtualized image of Fedora 4 that contains a new MissionLab version (created for the MAST project), that comes with everything that is necessary preinstalled. This is the easiest option that does not require native installation of a linux distribution compatible with MissionLab. See instructions on how to use it. (Credit and thanks to the MAST team at U.C. Berkeley for supplying this!)

  • *NEW* MissionLab distribution via MissionLab-Carmen Project - a new distribution for Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Debian, CentOS - Credit and thanks to the Robotics and Society Group from the University of Salamanca, this version provides a native installation of current linux distributions compatible with MissionLab. (Different robotic hardware is supported in some cases from other MissionLab versions - see the website)

  • MissionLab v7.0 distribution (13.6 MB - You need at least 400 MB of a disk space to install and work with MissionLab.)
    MissionLab compiles and runs on Linux. In particular, we have successfully compiled and tested with the following systems. For more information regarding the requirements, please see notes in README.COMPILE.
    • Red Hat Linux 9.0
    • Fedora Core 3, 4, and 5
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 WS
  • User Manual in PDF (2.8 MB)
  • Other useful documents:
    • "Multiagent Mission Specification and Execution" [ps.gz] [pdf] (A paper describing key concepts used in MissionLab)
    • "Evaluating the Usability of Robot Programming Toolsets" [ps.gz] [pdf] (A paper describing the first formal usability study conducted on MissionLab)
    • "Usability Evaluation of High-Level User Assistance for Robot Mission Specification" [ps.gz] [pdf] (Another paper describing one of the latest formal usability studies conducted for the DARPA MARS program)
MissionLab is being developed at the Mobile Robot Laboratory at Georgia Tech under the direction of Professor Ronald Arkin. MissionLab distribution includes unsupported source code. Please feel free to download it and send any feedback to mlab‍@‍cc.‍gatech.‍edu.


Mobile Robot Laboratory, College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Previous MissionLab Version
Back to Mobile Robot Lab Home