Model-based Development of Multi-irobot Simulation and Control

i ABSTRACT This thesis introduces the Model-Based Development of Multi-iRobot Toolbox (MBDMIRT), a Simulink-based toolbox designed to provide the means to acquire and practice the Model-Based Development (MBD) skills necessary to design real-time embedded system. The MBDMIRT toolbox runs under MATLAB/Simulink to simulate the movements of multiple iRobots and to control, after verification by simulation, multiple physical iRobots accordingly. It adopts the Simulink/Stateflow, which exemplifies an approach to MBD, to program the behaviors of the iRobots. The MBDMIRT toolbox reuses and augments the open-source MATLAB-Based Simulator for the iRobot Create from Cornell University to run the simulation. Regarding the mechanism of iRobot control, the MBDMIRT toolbox applies the MATLAB Toolbox for the iRobot Create (MTIC) from United States Naval Academy to command the physical iRobots. The MBDMIRT toolbox supports a timer in both the simulation and the control, which is based on the local clock of the PC running the toolbox. In addition to the build-in sensors of an iRobot, the toolbox can simulate four user-added sensors, which are overhead localization system (OLS), sonar sensors, a camera, and Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR). While controlling a physical iRobot, the toolbox supports the StarGazer OLS manufactured by HAGISONIC, Inc. ii To My Parents iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Georgios Fainekos for giving me an opportunity to work on this interesting research topic and for providing me with valuable guidance, inspiring thoughts, and unreserved support. I would also like to thank Dr. Hessam Sarjoughian and Dr. Panagiotis Artemiadis for the inspiring ideas and feedback they gave as part of my thesis committee. I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues at Arizona State University and beyond. I would particularly like to thank accompanied me to go through all my good and difficult times.