University of Southern California

Other

Peter Will

John R Rowlette, Sr

Wei-Min Shen

Behnam Salemi

A digital control for light beams. A position of an output light beam is changed based on a digital input control formed of a plurality of bits. The device may use movable mirrors to change the position of the output light beams.

Reflector for laser interrogation of three-dimensional objects

A design is presented for an N&#xd7;N crossbar switch. A crossbar switch is one of the basic components of Optical Switching Networks. An optical N&#xd7;N switch has the capability of connecting any light beam from the input of the switch to any output of the switch without interfering with other light beams. That is each single input is connected to one and only one of the output ports without interfering with any other beam or beams. The design presented is based on the use of precision meso-scale mechanics of the size typically found in miniature disc drives and meso-scale optical components. This meso-scale mechanics is then controlled or driven by precision servo-electronics and software to achieve the correct switching. The precision servomechanisms, meso-scale mechanics, electronics and software control are designed to work together to self-compensate for assembly or manufacturing defects and deleterious environmental, including temperature, effects.

Meso-scale strictly non-blocking N&#xd7;N optical crossbar switch using precision servo controls

Systems and techniques are described for distributed control and coordination of autonomous agents in a system. A protocol for distributed control allows autonomous agents to negotiate a group task for the agents, such as locomotion or self-reconfiguration in a robot application, and to synchronize individual agent actions to effect the group task. A protocol for adaptive communication allows autonomous agents, such as physically coupled self-sufficient robot modules, to continuously discover changes in their local topology. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: discovering a local topology, which includes a type of a communication connection to autonomous agents in the reconfigurable network topology, and determining an action based upon a received control message and the determined local topology.

Distributed control and coordination of autonomous agents in a dynamic, reconfigurable system

The intelligent motion surface disclosed herein includes multiple cells, each cell having independently controllable force producing devices for moving the object in multiple directions parallel to the intelligent motion surface. The intelligent motion surface has within each cell a set of driving devices engaging with the force producing devices for independent operation. Each driving device propels the motion surface in a separate direction. A motion controller independently operates each of the force producing devices to move the object. The motion controller delineates at least one force area on the intelligent motion surface based on object shape, object size, and desired position of the object on the intelligent motion surface, and provides translation of the desired force areas to produce a desired force vector on the intelligent motion surface. The invention contemplates application in a variety of scenarios, and thus the controllability of the surface to move any type of stable object over the surface to attain a desired position and orientation is disclosed.

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Los Altos Hills, CA, United States of America

Peter Will