Author: Lynne E. Parker
Affiliation: University of Tennessee
Title: Why Autonomous Robotics and Artificial Intelligence? : One Researcher’s Perspective
Keywords: cooperative robotics, multi-robot systems, distributed robotics, autonomous robotics women roboticists
Issue Date: July 15, 2006

Bibliography: Lynne E. Parker, "Why Autonomous Robotics and Artificial Intelligence? One Researcher's Perspective", Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp.582-584, 2006.

Abstract:
This article describes one researcher’s perspective on why she finds autonomous robotics and artificial intelligence to be exciting fields of study. In particular, she describes her motivation to better understand human activities and behavior by studying how to build similar (yet much simpler) capabilities in robotic systems. She then describes some of the research activities she has pursued in the field of autonomous multi-robot cooperation, including the development of ALLIANCE, CMOMMT (Cooperative Multi-robot Observation of Multiple Moving Targets), ASyMTRe (Automated Synthesis of Multi-robot Task solutions through software Reconfiguration, pronounced “Asymmetry”), and other related topics. The author then conjectures that two of the key reasons for the low representation of women in the field of robotics are the current teaching methods in the field and the low numbers of female role models. She encourages other women to enter the field of robotics, because of its clear benefits to society.

References:
[1] L. E. Parker, “ALLIANCE: An Architecture for Fault Tolerant Multi-Robot Cooperation”, IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 14(2), pp. 220--240, 1998.
[2] L. E. Parker, “Distributed Algorithms for Multi-Robot Observation of Multiple Moving Targets”, Autonomous Robots, 12(3), pp. 231--255, 2002.
[3] L. E. Parker and F. Tang, “Building Multi-Robot Coalitions through Automated Task Solution Synthesis”, to appear in Proceedings of the IEEE, special issue on Multi-Robot Systems, 2006.
[4] A. Howard, L. E. Parker, and G. Sukhatme, “Experiments with a Large-Scale Heterogeneous Team: Exploration, Mapping, Deployment, and Detection”, to appear in International Journal of Robotics Research, 2006.
[5] L. E. Parker, “Current State of the Art in Distributed Robot Systems”, in Distributed Autonomous Robot Systems 4, L. E. Parker, G. Bekey, and J. Barhen (eds), Springer, pp. 3--12, 2000.