This is a GNAT, one of our sensor network nodes that helps robots navigate.


 

  
 

Publications

Thesis

  • Behavioral Diversity in Learning Robot Teams, Balch, T., Ph.D. Thesis, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, December, 1998.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

  • Communication in Reactive Multiagent Robotic Systems, Balch, T. and Arkin, R.C., Autonomous Robots, 1(1): 27-52, 1995.
  • AuRA: Principles and Practice in Review, Arkin, R.C. and Balch, T., Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 9 175-189, 1997.
  • Behavior-Based Formation Control for Multiagent Robot Teams, Balch, T. and Arkin, R.C., IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, December 1998.
  • Hierarchic Social Entropy: An Information Theoretic Measure of Robot Team Diversity, Balch, T., Autonomous Robots, July, 2000.
  • Value-Based Action Selection for Observation with Robot Teams Using Probabilistic Techniques, Stroupe, A. and Balch, T., Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 2004. (also published at ICAR 2003).
  • Niche Selection in Foraging Tasks in Multi-Robot Teams Using Reinforcement Learning. Ulam, P,. and Balch, T., Adaptive Behavior 12 (4). 2004.
  • A 3-d Visual Tracking System for the Study of Spatial Navigation and Memory in Rhesus Monkeys, Z. Khan, R. A. Herman, K. Wallen, and T. Balch, Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 2004.
  • A Human Trainable System for Automated Social Insect Behavior Recognition, Feldman, A., and Balch, T., Adaptive Behavior 12 (4). 2004.
  • MCMC-Based Particle Filtering for Tracking a Variable Number of Interacting Targets, Khan, Z., Balch, T., and Dellaert, F., IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI). Accepted for publication, 2005.
  • How A.I. and multi-robot systems research will accelerate our understanding of social animal behavior, Balch, T., Dellaert, F., Feldman, A., Guillory, A., Isbell, C., Khan, Z., Pratt, S., Stein, A., and Wilde, H., Proceedings of the IEEE. Accepted for publication, 2005.

Magazine articles and invited journal articles

  • Io, Ganymede and Callisto: A Multiagent Robot Trash-Collecting Team, Balch, T., Boone, G., Collins, T., Forbes, H., MacKenzie, D. and Santamaria, J., AI Magazine, 16(2): 39-53, 1995.
  • Grid-Based Navigation for Mobile Robots, Balch, T., The Robotics Practitioner, 2(1), 1996.
  • Fast obstacle detection via triangulation of light spots, Matthies, L., Balch, T. and Wilcox, B., NASA Tech Briefs, 21(3): 52, 1997.  (Also published as conference paper at ICRA-96).
  • Profile of a winner: Georgia Tech (a review of our winning multi-robot entry in the AAAI-97 Mobile Robot Competition), Balch, T., AI Magazine, Fall, 1998.
  • Overview of RoboCup-99, Coradeschi, S., Karlsson, L., Stone, P., Balch, T., Kraetzschmar, G. and Asada, M. AI Magazine, 21(3), Fall, 2000. (Invited review article).
  • On the Directional Correlation of Axial Rotation in Inverted Felines and Planetary Spin, Donahoo, M., Boone, G., Balch, T., Journal of Irreproducible Results, 44(5), January, 2000.  (Scientific humor).
  • The AAAI 1999 Mobile Robot Competitions and Exhibitions, Meeden, L., Schultz, A., Balch, T., Bhargava, R., Haigh, K., Bohlen, M., Stein, C. and Miller, D. AI Magazine, 21(3), Fall, 2000.
  • Guest Editorial, Balch, T. and Parker, L., Autonomous Robots Special Issue on Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems, 8(3), 2000.
  • The AAAI-98 Mobile Robot Exhibition, Haigh, K., Balch, T., AI Magazine, Spring, 2000.
  • RoboCup-2001: The Fifth Robotic Soccer World Championships, Veloso, M., Balch, T., and Stone, P., AI Magazine, Spring, 2002.
  • Ten Years of the AAAI Mobile Robot Competition, Balch, T., Yanco, H., AI Magazine, Spring, 2002.

Books

  • Robot Teams: From Diversity to Polymorphism, Balch, T. and Parker, L. (eds), AK Peters, 2002.
  • RoboCup-2000: Robot Soccer World Cup IV, Stone, P., Balch, T., Kraetzschmar, G. (eds), Springer-Verlag, 2001.

Book chapters

  • Cooperative Multiagent Robotic Systems, Arkin, R.C. and Balch, T., AI-based Mobile Robots: Case Studies of Successful Robot Systems, D. Kortenkamp, R.P. Bonasso, and R. Murphy (eds), MIT Press, 1998.
  • Introduction and Overview of RoboCup-99, Veloso, M., Kitano, H., Pagello, E., Kraetzschmar, G., Stone, P., Balch, T., Asada, M., Coradeschi, S., Karlsson, L. and Fujita, M., in RoboCup-99: Robot Soccer World Cup III, Veloso, Pagello, Kitano (eds), Springer-Verlag, 2000.
  • Intelligent Robots, Balch, T.,World Book 2001 Science Year, World Book Encylopedia, 2001.
  • Communication and Coordination in Reactive Robotic Teams, Arkin, R.C. and Balch, T., in Coordination Theory and Collaboration Technology, Olsen, G. (ed), 2001.
  • Mission-Relevant Collaborative Observation and Localization,  Stroupe, A., Balch, T.,  inSchultz, A. and Parker, L. (eds) Multi-Robot Systems: From Swarms to Intelligent Automata,  Klewer, 2002.
  • Taxonomies of Multi-Robot Task and Reward, Balch, T., in Robot Teams: From Diversity to Polymorphism, Balch, T. and Parker, L. (eds), AK Peters, 2002.
  • Communication, Diversity and Learning: Cornerstones of Swarm Behavior, Balch, T., in Swarm Robotics, Sahin E., and Spears, W. (eds). Springer Verlag. 2005.

Papers at strongly peer-reviewed conferences

  • Avoiding the Past: A Simple but Effective Strategy for Reactive    Navigation, Balch, T. and Arkin R.C., IEEE International Conference on Robots and Automation (ICRA-93), Atlanta, May 1993, 678-685.
  • Communication of Behavioral State in Multi-Agent Retrieval Tasks, Arkin, R.C., Balch, T. and Nitz, E., IEEE International Conference on Robots and Automation (ICRA-93), Atlanta, May 1993.
  • Motor Schema-Based Formation Control for Multiagent Robot Teams, Balch, T. and Arkin R.C., IEEE International Conference on Multiagent Systems (ICMAS-95), San Francisco, April 1995.
  • Fast Optical Hazard Detection for Planetary Rovers Using Multiple Spot Laser Triangulation, Matthies, L., Balch, T. and Wilcox B., IEEE International Conference on Robots and Automation (ICRA-97), Albuquerque, NM, April 1997.
  • The Impact of Diversity on Performance in Robot Foraging, Balch, T., Autonomous Agents (Agents-99), Seattle, WA, May, 1999.
  • Vision-Servoed Localization and Behaviors for an Autonomous Quadruped Legged Robot, Veloso, M., Winner, E., Lenser, S., Bruce, J., and Balch, T., Artificial Intelligence Planning Systems (AIPS-2000), 2000.
  • Integrating Information, Planning, and Execution Monitoring Agents, Veloso, M., Balch, T., and Lenser, S., Autonomous Agents (Agents-2000), Barcelona, 2000.
  • Social Potentials for Scalable Multirobot Formations, Balch, T. and Hybinette, M., IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-2000), San Francisco, 2000.
  • Fast and Inexpensive Color Image Segmentation for Interactive Robots, Bruce, J., Balch, T. and Veloso, M., IEEE Intelligent Robot Systems (IROS-2000).  2000.
  • Behavior-Based Coordination of Large-Scale Robot Formations, Balch, T. and Hybinette, M., IEEE International Conference on Multiagent Systems (ICMAS-2000), Boston, 2000.
  • Behavior-Based Control of a Non-Holonomic Robot in Pushing Tasks, Emery, R. and Balch, T., IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-2001), Seoul, 2001.
  • Distributed Sensor Fusion for Object Position Estimation by Multi-Robot Systems. Ashley W. Stroupe, Martin C. Martin and Tucker Balch. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-2001).  Seoul, May 2001.
  • Symmetry in Markov Decision Problems and implications for Single and Multiagent Learning.  Zinkevich, M. and Balch, T., IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML-2001). 2001.
  • Automatically Tracking and Analyzing the Behavior of Live Insect Colonies, Balch, T., Khan, Z. and Veloso, M., ACM Autonomous Agents (Agents 2001), Montreal, 2001.
  • Protocols for Collaboration, Coordination and Dynamic Role Assignment in a Robot Team, Emery, R., Sikorski, K., and and Balch, T., IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-2002). Washington D.C., 2002.
  • Collaborative Constraint-Based Multi-Robot Localization. Stroupe, A., and Balch, T. IEEE Intelligent Robot Systems (IROS-2002).  Lausanne, 2002.
  • Value-Based Observation with Robot Teams (VBORT) Using Probabilistic Techniques.  Stroupe, A., and Balch, T., 2003 International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR 2003).
  • Efficient Particle Filter-Based Tracking of Multiple Interacting Targets Using an MRF-based Motion Model, Khan, Z., Balch, T., Dellaert, F., Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'03), 2003.
  • An MCMC-Based Particle Filter for Tracking Multiple Interacting Targets, Khan, Z., Balch, T., and Dellaert, F., European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV-04). 2004.
  • Value-Based Action Selection for Exploration and Dynamic Target Observation with Robot Teams, Stroupe, A., Ravichandran, R., and Balch, T., 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-04), 2004.
  • Value-Based Communication Preservation for Mobile Robots, Powers, M., and Balch, T. Proceedings of 7th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS-04). Toulouse, France. 2004.
  • A Rao-Blackwellized Particle Filter for EigenTracking, Z. Khan, T. Balch, and F. Dellaert, IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'04), 2004.
  • Pervasive Sensor-less Networks for Cooperative Multi-Robot Tasks, O’Hara, K, and Balch, T., Seventh International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robot Systems (DARS-04). 2004.
  • Distributed Path Planning for Robots in Dynamic Environments Using a Pervasive Embedded Network. O’Hara, K., and Balch, T. Proceedings of Third International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS). July 2004.
  • Improving Multirobot Multitarget Tracking by Communicating Negative Information. Powers, M., Ravichandran, R., and Balch, T. Third International Multi-Robot Systems Workshop. Washington, D.C. March 2005.
  • The GNATs -- Low-Cost Embedded Networks for Supporting Mobile Robots, O’Hara, K, and Balch, T. Third International Multi-Robot Systems Workshop. Washington, D.C., March 2005.
  • What Are the Ants Doing? Vision-Based Tracking and Reconstruction of Control Programs. Egerstedt, M., Balch, T., Dellaert, F., Delmotte, F., and Khan, Z. 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain, Apr. 2005.
  • Physical Path Planning Using the GNATs, K.J. O'Hara and V.L. Bigio and E.R. Dodson and A. Irani and D.B. Walker and T.R. Balch. 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain, Apr. 2005.
  • Data-Driven MCMC for Learning and Inference in Switching Linear Dynamic Systems, Oh, S. M., Rehg, J., Balch, T., Dellaert, F., 2005 National Conference on AI (AAAI-05), Pittsburgh, July 2005.
  • Learning and Inference in Parametric Switching Linear Dynamic Systems, Oh, S. M., Rehg, J., Balch, T., Dellaert, F., 2005 International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV-05).

Papers at peer-reviewed conferences

  • Buzz: An Instantiation of a Schema-Based Reactive Robotic System, Arkin, R.C., Balch, T.,Collins, T., Henshaw, A., MacKenzie, D., Nitz, E., Rodriguez, R., and Ward, K.,. International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems: IAS-3, Pittsburgh, Feb. 1993, 418-427.
  • Making a Clean Sweep: Behavior-Based Vacuuming, MacKenzie, D. and Balch, T., AAAI Fall Symposium: Instantiating Real-world Agents, Raleigh, NC, March 1993.
  • Dynamic Scheduling for Mobile Robots, Balch, T., Forbes, H., and Schwan, K., 6th EUROMICRO Workshop on Real-time Systems, Vasteraas, Sweden, June 1994.
  • Lessons Learned in the Implementation of a Multirobot Trash-Collecting Team, Balch, T., AAAI 1995 Spring Symposium, Stanford, March 1995.
  • Social Entropy: A New Metric for Learning Multirobot Teams, Balch, T., 10th International FLAIRS Conference (FLAIRS-97), Daytona, 1997.
  • Lightweight Rovers for Mars Science Exploration and Sample Return, Schenker, P., Sword, L., Ganino, A., Bickler, D., Hickey, G., Brown, D., Baumgartner, E., Matthies, L., Wilcox, B., Balch, T., Aghazarian, H. and M. S. Garrett, SPIE Intelligent Robotics and Computer Vision XVI, SPIE Proc. 320, Pittsburgh, Oct. 14-17, 1997.
  • Design and Implementation of a Teleautonomous Hummer, Bentivegna, D.C., Ali, K.S., Arkin, R.C., Balch, T., SPIE Conference on Mobile Robots XII, Pittsburgh, Oct 1997.
  • Learning Roles: Behavioral Diversity in Robot Teams, Balch, T., Proc. Of the 1997 AAAI Workshop on Multiagent Learning, Providence RI, July 1997.
  • JavaBots, Balch, T., Video Proceedings of the 1998 AAAI Mobile Robot Exhibition, AAAI. Madison WI, July 1998.
  • Integrating Robotics Research with JavaBots, Balch, T. and Ram, A., 1998. Working Notes of theAAAI 1998 Spring Symposium, Stanford.
  • Integrating RL and Behavior-Based Control for Soccer, Balch, T., RoboCup-97: Proceedings of the First Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences, Springer-Verlag, 1998.
  • JavaSoccer, Balch, T., RoboCup-97: Proceedings of the First Robot World Cup Soccer Games and Conferences, Springer-Verlag, 1998.
  • Robots Move (position paper on robot simulation), Balch, T., 1998. Working Notes of the AAAI 1998 Spring Symposium, Stanford. 1998.
  • Reward and Diversity in Multirobot Foraging, Balch, T., IJCAI-99 Workshop on Agents Learning About and with Other Agents, Stockholm, 1999.
  • Behavioral Diversity as Multiagent Cooperation, Balch, T., SPIE 99 Workshop on Multiagent Systems, Boston, 1999.
  • Progress in RoboCup Soccer Research in 2000, M. Asada, A. Birk, E. Pagello, M. Fujita, I. Noda,S. Tadokoro D. Duhaut, P. Stone, M. Veloso, T. Balch, H. Kitano, B. Thomas. International Symposium on Experimental Robotics, Honolulu, Dec, 2000.
  • Hierarchic Social Entropy and Behavioral Difference: New Measures of Robot Group Diversity, Balch, T., NIST Workshop on Metrics for Intelligent Systems, Gaithersburg, July, 2000.
  • Model-based and Model-free Learning in Markovian and non-Markovian Domains, Sikorski, K. and Balch, T., Autonomous Agents (Agents 2001) Workshop on Learning Agents, Montreal, 2001.
  • Merging Gaussian Distributions for Object Localization in Multi-Robot Systems. Stroupe, A., Martin, M., and Balch, T. Experimental Robotics VII (Proceedings ISER 2000). Rus and Singh (Eds). Springer, March 2001.
  • Mission-Relevant Collaborative Observation and Localization. Stroupe, A. and Balch, T. A.C. Schultz and L.E. Parker (eds) Multi-Robot Systems: From Swarms to Intelligent Automata, Kluwer, 2002.
  • Constraint-Based Landmark Localization. Ashley W. Stroupe, Kevin Sikorski, and Tucker Balch. 2002 RoboCup Symposium, 2002.
  • Niche Selection for Foraging Tasks in Multi-Robot Teams Using Reinforcement Learning. Ulam, P., and Balch, T., Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on the Mathematics and Algorithms of Social Insects, 2003.