The Caltech Multi-Vehicle Wireless Testbed (MVWT)

A Testbed for Networked Control, Communications, and Computing

Project Overview

The Caltech Multi-Vehicle Wireless Testbed (MVWT) consists of 8 mobile vehicles with embedded computing and communications capability for use in testing new approaches for command and control across dynamic networks. The system allows testing of a variety of communications-related technologies, including distributed command and control algorithms, dynamically reconfigurable network topologies, source coding for real-time transmission of data in lossy environments, and multi-network communications. A unique feature of the testbed is the use of vehicles that have second order dynamics, requiring real-time feedback algorithms to stabilize the system while performing cooperative tasks.

The MVWT is part of the the Caltech Vehicles Laboratory and consists of individual vehicles with PC-based computation and controls, and multiple communications devices (802.11 wireless ethernet, and Bluetooth). The vehicles are freely moving, wheeled platforms propelled by high performance ducted fans. The laboratory contains access points for the 802.11, overhead visual sensing (to allow emulation of GPS signal processing), a centralized computer for emulating certain distributed computations, and network gateways to control and manipulate communications traffic.

• MVWT Overview Presentation (Lars Cremean, CCCO, Nov 2001)
• Copy of DURIP proposal

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the various vehicles we have built for use in the testbed. Click on the images to get more information on the various vehicles.

Beth I (prototype), Jun 2003	Kelly II, May 2002	Wilson II, Feb 2001	Wilson I (prototype), Dec 2000.

Movies

Here are some movies of the flight tests on the testbed. Click on the images to bring up the move (AVI format, ~20M each, w/ sound).

Trajectory tracking, May 2002	Follow the leader, May 2002	Manual Control, May 2002

Papers

Papers about the testbed:

• A Platform for Cooperative and Coordinated Control of Multiple Vehicles: The Caltech Multi-Vehicle Wireless Testbed, Timothy Chung, Lars Cremean, William B. Dunbar, Zhipu Jin, Eric Klavins, David Moore, Abhishek Tiwari, Dave van Gogh, Stephen Waydo.Conference on Cooperative Control and Optimization, 2002.

• The Caltech Multi-Vehicle Wireless Testbed, Lars Cremean, William Dunbar, David van Gogh, Jason Hickey, Eric Klavins, Jason Meltzer, Richard M. Murray. Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2002.
  

Papers using the testbed:

• Position Tracking for a Nonlinear Underactuated Hovercraft: Controller Design and Experimental Results, Antonio Pedro Aguiar, Lars Cremean, Joao Pedro Hespanha. Conference on Decision and Control, 2003 (submitted).

Credits

The following students and postdocs have contributed to the MVWT since its inception in October 2000: