2012

@inproceedings{bangert2012, Author = {Bangert, Philip and Reichel, Florian and Busch, Stephan and Schilling, Klaus}, Booktitle = {Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress 2012, Berlin}, Month = {November}, Publisher = {Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V., Bonn, 2012}, Title = {Design- und Verifikationstests des Lageerkennungs- und Lageregelungssystems f{\"u}r den Picosatelliten UWE-3}, Url = {urn:nbn:de:101:1-201211163992}, Year = {2012}} }

Das Picosatelliten-Programm der Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg legt besonderes Augenmerk auf die Durchf{\"u}hrung von Tests schon w{\"a}hrend der Entwicklungsphase des Satelliten, um das Gesamtsystem robuster und zuverl{\"a}ssiger zu machen. Im Bereich der Lageerkennung und Lageregelung erm{\"o}glichen speziell entwickelte Verfahren fortw{\"a}hrende Tests direkt am Arbeitsplatz, ohne dabei auf gro{\ss}e Testanlagen und teures Testequipment angewiesen zu sein. An der Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg existieren dazu unter anderem eine Drehplattform mit hoher Winkelaufl{\"o}sung, eine k{\"u}nstliche Lichtquelle zur Sonnensimulation sowie ein "Aircushion Testbed", das eine nahezu kr{\"a}ftefreie Bewegung in drei Achsen erm{\"o}glicht und so bei der Entwicklung der Lageregelung von entscheidender Bedeutung ist. Mit Hilfe der hier beschriebenen Testumgebungen kann die Eignung des Lageerkennungs- und Lageregelungssystems verifiziert und dessen Effizienz gesteigert werden.

@INPROCEEDINGS{busch2012, author = {Stephan Busch and Klaus Schilling}, title = {UWE-3: A Modular System Design for the Next Generation of Very Small Satellites}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Small Satellites Systems and Services - The 4S Symposium, Portorož (Slovenia)}, year = {2012}, month = {June}, }

Cooperating distributed small satellites promise interesting application potential as well as implementation challenges. Therefore the University of Würzburg established a road map for crucial technology implementations realized by the UWE-satellites (University Würzburg's Experimental satellites). Here the first German pico-satellite UWE-1 (at about 1 kg mass) was launched in 2005 with the main scientific objective to analyze in communication experiments the parameter optimization in Internet Protocols for the space environment. The successor UWE-2 was launched in 2009, aiming to demonstrate the capabilities of pico-satellites in the field of attitude and position determination. UWE-3 is intended to demonstrate in orbit a miniature attitude control system based on magnetic torquers and one reaction wheel. To establish a basis for a series of future satellites, it promotes an advanced implementation enabling a modular and flexible architecture of the pico-satellite bus, in order to increase robustness and to reduce mass. The system design supports rapid development, integration and testing of the satellite, as well as maintenance, extension and replacement of subsystems after integration. Moreover its standardized interfaces allow efficient manufacturing and support reusability of components. Thus it provides an appropriate basis for the next generation of UWE pico-satellites.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Eck2012e, author = {Daniel Eck and Klaus Schilling}, title = {Increasing the Independence of older people by an intelligent Mobility Scooter}, booktitle = {Ambient Assisted Living 2012 - Tagungsbandbeiträge 5. Deutscher AAL-Kongress}, year = {2012}, pages = {9.6}, address = {Berlin, Germany}, month = {January} }

The mobility of older people with degenerated mental and physical abilities is often limited. Due to this mobility limita-tion these people are not able to live independently and are reliant on aid from the family, friends, or social aid. The mobility scooter introduced in this paper supports such people and provides them the possibility to live more inde-pendently. However, the control of such a vehicle is often very challenging. For this reason, driver assistance functions were implemented on the mobility scooter to support the operator and to relief from the challenging control. Additional-ly to the driver assistance functions, autonomous functions were also integrated. Furthermore, a navigation system was developed, which determines a safe route to the target considering information specific to pedestrians, such as side-walks, pedestrian lights, zebra crossings, and so on. In the following paper, the driver assistance functions, the autono-mous functions, as well as the navigation system will be presented in detail.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Eck2012d, author = {Daniel Eck and Thomas Heim and Robin Hess and Klaus Schilling}, title = {A Narrow Passage Assistance Function on a Mobility Scooter for Elderly People}, booktitle = {7th German Conference on Robotics (ROBOTIK 2012)}, year = {2012}, pages = {1-6}, address = {Munich, Germany}, month = {May} }

This paper presents a narrow passage assistance function to support older adults with degenerated mental and physical abilities. The assistance function is implemented on a mobility scooter which already provides several assistance functions. The narrow passage algorithm is the newest assistance function on the mobility scooter and reliefs the operator from the challenging control of the mobility scooter in narrows, such as doorways, while the operator is controlling the vehicle. This is a very important aspect, because the elderly people do not want to be controlled by the vehicle, they want to control the vehicle by themselves. Therefore, the algorithm determines the prospective path of the vehicle according to the current steering angle. A Laser Range Finder (LRF) is used to detect narrows on the prospective path of the vehicle. If the vehicle can drive through the narrow, this assistance function prevents a slow down caused by the collision avoidance function. The algorithm is evaluated in several test runs using a high precision positioning system. Finally, the results of the experiments are presented and discussed.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Eck2012c, author = {Daniel Eck and Klaus Schilling and Bettina Williger and Frieder R. Lang}, title = {Evaluation of a Drive Assistance Function for Older Adults}, booktitle = {1st Conference on Embedded Systems, Computational Intelligence and Telematics in Control}, year = {2012}, pages = {176-181}, address = {Würzburg, Germany} }

Assistive technologies for older adults are getting more and more attention because of changes in demographics. Mobility is one of the biggest issues for people with degenerating physical and mental abilities, such that they are able to live independently. Therefore, this paper deals with the development and the evaluation of a drive assistance function for a mobility scooter to help keep older people mobile. The implemented drive assistance function reduces the challenging control of the vehicle and provides supports for the operator. The assistance function analyses the driving commands of the operator and controls the mobility scooter according to these commands. Finally, an evaluation of the assistance function with odler people shows the less challenging control and the increased safety.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Eck2012b, author = {Daniel Eck and Jan-Philipp Günther}, title = {German Civil Liability for Users and Manufactures of Robotic Transportation Systems}, booktitle = {IEEE International Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts}, year = {2012}, pages = {60-65}, address = {Munich, Germany}, month = {May}, }

Currently the market for service robots is expanding very fast. Special attention is given to robots designed to assist elderly persons with degenerative mental and physical abilities, technology which has arisen from the demand associated with recent demographic changes. Therefore, several mobility aids equipped with assistance functions such as obstacle avoidance were developed in recent years to support the mobility of the elderly. However, many legal questions surrounding the use of these systems remain unanswered including the important question of liability. These problems become more complicated with the advent of new technology, such as the ability for robots to “learn” and adapt new functions to perform their duties. The law is not yet prepared for the changes coming with these modern technologies. Robots and autonomous systems are not quite considerate by the law until now. Therefore, this paper wants to shed light onto the issues surrounding transport robots in AAL and German civil liability. It will focus on the liability of the manufacturer and user both in the status quo and with regard to future problems.

@ARTICLE{Eck2012a, author = {Eck, D. and Schilling, K. and Abdul-Majeed, A. and Thielecke, J. and Richter, P. and Gutierrez Boronat, J. and Schens, I. and Thomas, B. and Williger, B. and Lang, F.}, title = {Mobility assistance for elderly people}, journal = {Journal of Applied Bionics and Biomechanics }, year = {2012}, volume = {9}, pages = {69-83}, number = {1}, month = {February} }

This paper describes the development of a scooter supporting the mobility of older people. The scooter is equipped with a drive assistance system and a special scooter navigation system. The drive assistance system consists of a velocity controller, a steering controller, and a collision avoidance system. In this paper it is demonstrated how the challenging control and steering tasks are modified to increase safety for older people. A special scooter navigation system is presented, to support elderly people in navigating on a safe route through the city using sidewalks, pedestrian lights and crosswalks. For extended positioning requirements a hybrid positioning system was developed combining GPS, WLAN, and inertial sensor data. By combination of these technical improvements it is demonstrated how older people are able to preserve their self-determined and independent life. Usability research was done with focus groups in order to become familiar with global user demands and expectations towards a mobility assistance system. Results show that the system components are expected to assist the user in navigation, steering and speed control rather than to take complete control on the driving situation.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Eck2012, author = {Daniel Eck and Klaus Schilling}, title = {Increasing the Independence of Older People by an Intelligent Mobility Scooter}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 5. AAL Kongress}, pages = {9.5}, address = {Berlin, Germany}, year = {2012}, }

The mobility of older people with degenerated mental and physical abilities is often limited. Due to this mobility limita-tion these people are not able to live independently and are reliant on aid from the family, friends, or social aid. The mobility scooter introduced in this paper supports such people and provides them the possibility to live more inde-pendently. However, the control of such a vehicle is often very challenging. For this reason, driver assistance functions were implemented on the mobility scooter to support the operator and to relief from the challenging control. Additional-ly to the driver assistance functions, autonomous functions were also integrated. Furthermore, a navigation system was developed, which determines a safe route to the target considering information specific to pedestrians, such as side-walks, pedestrian lights, zebra crossings, and so on. In the following paper, the driver assistance functions, the autono-mous functions, as well as the navigation system will be presented in detail.

@inproceedings{Fritscher2012, Title = {Generic network-based infrastructure and a browser-enabled rich client HM}, Author = {M. Fritscher and R. Heß and K. Schilling}, Booktitle = {6th IARP RISE Robotics for Risky Interventions and Environmental Surveillance-Maintenance}, Year = {2012}, }

Coming Soon.

@INPROCEEDINGS{GenseleiterDGLR2012, author = {K Genseleiter and M Haunschild and M Eineder and K Schilling and S Frank and A Kleinschrodt and C Minet and M Schmidt}, title = {GMES- und Picosatelliten-basiertes Automatisches Echtzeit-Identifikations- und -Monitoringsystem für den großräumigen Schienentransport („GP-AIMS“)}, journal = {61. Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress, Berlin}, year = {2012} }

Unter Verwendung von GMES-Daten – insbesondere TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X sowie allgemeiner Erdbe-obachtungsinformationen -, picosatelliten-basierter sowie gegebenenfalls terrestrisch ergänzter Datenkom-munikation, satellitengestützter Positionsbestimmung sowie optimal abgestimmter intelligenter Sensorik am Transportgerät soll ein System zur Planung und Echtzeitüberwachung von eisenbahngestütztem Gütertrans-port innerhalb der eurasischen Kontinentalplatte (Bsp. Asien/China nach Europa) ausgearbeitet, gegebenen-falls in einzelnen Teilen vorentwickelt und in Software simuliert und in einer nachfolgenden Phase in einzelnen Komponenten als Demonstrations- bzw. Funktionsmodell erstellt werden.

@ARTICLE{Her12, author = {Herrmann, C. and Ma, L. and Wilbert, J. and Baier, K. and Schilling, K.}, title = {Control of a HexaPOD Treatment Couch for Robot-Assisted Radiotherapy}, journal = {Biomedical Engineering / Biomedizinische Technik}, year = {2012}, volume = {57}, pages = {333--351}, number = {5}, month = {July}, doi = {10.1515/bmt-2011-0125} }

Moving tumors, for example in the vicinity of the lungs, pose a challenging problem in radiotherapy, as healthy tissue should not be irradiated. Apart from gating approaches, one standard method is to irradiate the complete volume within which a tumor moves plus a safety margin containing a considerable volume of healthy tissue. This work deals with a system for tumor motion compensation using the HexaPOD robotic treatment couch (Medical Intelligence GmbH, Schwabmünchen, Germany). The HexaPOD, carrying the patient during treatment, is instructed to perform translational movements such that the tumor motion, from the beams-eye view of the linear accelerator, is eliminated. The dynamics of the HexaPOD are characterized by time delays, saturations, and other non-linearities that make the design of control a challenging task. The focus of this work lies on two control methods for the HexaPOD that can be used for reference tracking. The first method uses a model predictive controller based on a model gained through system identification methods, and the second method uses a position control scheme useful for reference tracking. We compared the tracking performance of both methods in various experiments with real hardware using ideal reference trajectories, prerecorded patient trajectories, and human volunteers whose breathing motion was compensated by the system.

@inproceedings{Hess2012a, Title = {Networked Rovers for Environment Characterization}, Author = {R. Heß and , D. Eck and M. Fritscher and K. Schilling}, Booktitle = {6th IARP RISE Robotics for Risky Interventions and Environmental Surveillance-Maintenance}, Year = {2012} }

Nowadays disasters and prevention of environmental pollution are responsible for an increasing need of time-critical or time-consuming activities, especially in the domain of search and rescue and monitoring of large areas. In this contribution three exemplary applications for heterogeneous networks of robots are addressed focusing on the system concepts, information and data flow, and system requirements for mobile robots. The first application is a human centric system, where human rescuers are supported by robots for search and rescue scenarios. The second application is a robot centric system, where a robot is support by self-sustaining individuals (bees) of a bio-robotic network for pollution monitoring of large areas. The third application is a mixture of independent human and robot teams coordinated by a central control station for surveillance and reconnaissance tasks. All applications are introduced in detail to demonstrate the different approach. Finally all applications were implemented and tested utilizing the robust mobile robot Outdoor MERLIN. Implementation details on navigation, communication and control technologies are given. Finally the test results are discussed, especially the benefits compared to purely robot or human teams.

@inproceedings{hess2012setting, Title = {Setting up a Surveillance System in the Civil Domain with Cooperating UAVs and UGVs}, Author = {Heß, Robin and Fritscher, Michael and Krauss, Markus and Schilling, Klaus}, Booktitle = {Multivehicle Systems}, Year = {2012}, Number = {1}, Pages = {19--24}, Volume = {2}, }

This work gives an overview of the project SiNafaR, safe navigation for autonomous robot systems, which aims at identifying requirements, legal aspects in Germany, and finding technological solutions for heterogeneous multi robotic systems in the civil sector. Based on a security services scenario a surveillance system consisting of UAVs and UGVs is proposed. Main technological gaps, such as assessable localization, reliable communication and consistent HMI are identified and solutions are presented.

@inproceedings{Hess2012, Title = {A flexible autonomous alerting mechanism for an automated bio-technological environmental monitoring system}, Author = {R. Heß and F. Kempf and K. Schilling}, Booktitle = {6th IARP RISE Robotics for Risky Interventions and Environmental Surveillance-Maintenance}, Year = {2012}, }

This paper presents a flexible autonomous alerting mechanism designed for an automated environmental monitoring system with remote biological sensors for large areas. Large scale environmental monitoring systems, consisting of a huge number of sensors distributed over a large area, allow the detection of long-term changes due to climate change or other global effects, as well as the discovery of local punctual events, cause by e.g. chemical accidents. These sensor networks produce an enormous amount of data, which have to be analyzed for the purpose of gaining results which indicate events. This is even more crucial for the bio-technological network, on which this work is based on, where information is not only gathered by raw sensor information, but also by information collected from colonies of bees. The health monitoring of the colonies is possible by using different sensors within the hive, but requires the combination of the measurements according to complicated rules identified with the help of human experience. This work aims exactly at the problem stated last. A rule manager is presented as an essential component of a sensor network and its performance is evaluated in a real setup consisting of autarkic remote sensor stations. Rules are formulated in a dedicated language, build of atomic values, atomic rules and complex rules. Out of this, the rule manager builds up a tree representation of the rules and its dependencies, where the leaves are the data sources and the atomic values. Data source are handled very flexible, direct sensor input is as well possible as input from a database, consolidating the sensor data of all remote sensor stations, or input of system information of the center control station. In order to increase performance and reduce overhead, changes in atomic values are monitored and only necessary parts of the rule tree are evaluated. Once a rule is satisfied, several event handlers can be called to either manipulate the rule tree or to initiate external actions, such as command a mobile robot to a dedicated position (what is done in the system this work is based on) or to inform human operators.

@INPROCEEDINGS{KleinschrodtCubesat2012, author = {A. Kleinschrodt and M. Schmidt and K. Schilling}, title = {Fault Detection, Identification and Recovery (FDIR) concept for teleoperation of low cost ground station networks}, booktitle = {4th European CubeSat Symposium}, year = {30 January –- 1 February 2012}, address = {Brussels}, organization = {Ecole Royale Militaire} }

The recent success of small satellite missions led to the establishment of low-cost ground station networks, which can be used to access a satellite from any distant location on Earth. In the scope of such academic ground station networks, fully autonomous or tele-operated ground station equipment is desired, but due to the lack of proper monitoring and control capabilities, a significant amount of manpower is still required for satellite operation. The objective of this work was the implementation of an FDIR concept for the ground station in Würzburg. Generally, FDIR schemes monitor a particular system to increase failure robustness. When a failure takes place, its presence is detected and its origin is isolated. Once these are identified, actions can be taken to recover the system autonomously. FDIR approaches are already widely spread in environments dependent on stability and proper functionality over preferably indefinite periods of time. Since a ground station's main task is to receive as much information as possible in a relatively short period of contact time, availability and functionality of all subsystems is of great importance. The challenge was first to analyse and then adapt those existing algorithms to the conditions of a scientific satellite ground station. Therefore, at first several analyses of the form and impact of all possible faults to occur on a ground station had to be made, amongst others a FTA as well as a FMEA. Taking all this information into account, a software framework was implemented, which can be used to detect anomalies and take appropriate actions to recover from them. Furthermore, it provides the necessary functionalities for remote monitoring and operation. The design and the implementation of the developed FDIR approach will be presented in this paper. Time and cost for operating the ground station could be minimized while, at the same time, its reliability and availability was highly increased.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Leutert2012b, author = {3D-Sensor Based Dynamic Path Planning and Obstacle Avoidance for Industrial Manipulators}, title = {Leutert, Florian; Freier, Christoph; Schilling, Klaus}, booktitle = {Proceedings for the conference of ROBOTIK 2012, 7th German Conference on Robotics}, year = {2012}, publisher = {VDE Verlag}, isbn = {978-3-8007-3418-4} }

Three-dimensional realtime characterization of the robot’s workspace offers good perspectives for efficient motion planning. In our approach, the robot’s environment is observed by Photonic Mixer Device cameras, providing depth information for each pixel. On that basis a 3-dimensional environment model is generated and optimized for path planning and obstacle avoidance. The path is continuously adapted to changes in the workspace to generate a smooth and safe motion towards the target position. All static and dynamic obstacles on its path are automatically avoided, which is a step towards the challenging objective to enable safe presence of humans in the work cell. Key technology and system design aspects are presented as well as a first characterisation of the achievable performance.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Leutert2012a, author = {Leutert, F.; Schilling, K.;}, title = {Support of Power Plant Telemaintenance with Robots by Augmented Reality Methods}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Robotics for the Power Industry}, ISBN= {978-1-4673-4585-9}, pages = {45-49}, year = {2012} }

In power plants, in many cases direct human access to crucial sites for inspection or maintenance is impossible. Here, remotely operated robots offer good potential to handle these tasks. This relates to technology challenges for remote operations. In this contribution we propose the use of an Augmented Reality interface as a means to directly and intuitively visualize complex information to overcome some of the challenges and support the teleoperator in his duties. Support functions that could be employed for several tasks in the context of inspection or maintenance are introduced.

@ARTICLE{Men12, author = {Menten, M.J. and Guckenberger, M. and Herrmann, C. and Krauß, A. and Nill, S. and Oelfke, U. and Wilbert, J.}, title = {Comparison of a multileaf collimator tracking system and a robotic treatment couch tracking system for organ motion compensation during radiotherapy}, journal = {Medical Physics}, year = {2012}, volume = {39}, pages = {7032--7041}, number = {11}, month = {November}, doi = {10.1118/1.4761868} }

One limitation of accurate dose delivery in radiotherapy is intrafractional movement of the tumor or the entire patient which may lead to an underdosage of the target tissue or an overdosage of adjacent organs at risk. In order to compensate for this movement, different techniques have been developed. In this study the tracking performances of a multileaf collimator (MLC) tracking system and a robotic treatment couch tracking system were compared under equal conditions.
METHODS: MLC tracking was performed using a tracking system based on the Siemens 160 MLC. A HexaPOD robotic treatment couch tracking system was also installed at the same linac. A programmable 4D motion stage was used to reproduce motion trajectories with different target phantoms. Motion localization of the target was provided by the 4D tracking system of Calypso Medical Inc. The gained positional data served as input signal for the control systems of the MLC and HexaPOD tracking systems attempting to compensate for the target motion. The geometric and dosimetric accuracy for the tracking of eight different respiratory motion trajectories was investigated for both systems. The dosimetric accuracy of both systems was also evaluated for the tracking of five prostate motion trajectories.
RESULTS: For the respiratory motion the average root mean square error of all trajectories in y direction was reduced from 4.1 to 2.0 mm for MLC tracking and to 2.2 mm for HexaPOD tracking. In x direction it was reduced from 1.9 to 0.9 mm (MLC) and to 1.0 mm (HexaPOD). The average 2%/2 mm gamma pass rate for the respiratory motion trajectories was increased from 76.4% for no tracking to 89.8% and 95.3% for the MLC and the HexaPOD tracking systems, respectively. For the prostate motion trajectories the average 2%/2 mm gamma pass rate was 60.1% when no tracking was applied and was improved to 85.0% for MLC tracking and 95.3% for the HexaPOD tracking system.
CONCLUSIONS: Both systems clearly increased the geometric and dosimetric accuracy during tracking of respiratory motion trajectories. Thereby, the geometric accuracy was increased almost equally by both systems, whereas the dosimetric accuracy of the HexaPOD tracking system was slightly better for all considered respiratory motion trajectories. Substantial improvement of the dosimetric accuracy was also observed during tracking of prostate motion trajectories during an intensity-modulated radiotherapy plan. Thereby, the HexaPOD tracking system showed better results than the MLC tracking.

@inproceedings{regoli2012b, author = {Regoli, L.; Ravandoor, K.; Schmidt, M.; Schilling, K.}, title = {On-line robust pose estimation for Rendezvous and Docking in space using Photonic Mixer Devices}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 63. IAC Congress, Naples}, year = {2012}, number = {IAC-12,D1,2,6,x13665} }

Several machine vision based techniques have been developed in the past to estimate relative motions and pose among spacecrafts and to assist them in Rendezvous and Docking maneuvers. These techniques have typically relied on stereo vision for range information and image processing techniques primarily for object and pattern recognition and their tracking among the others. Development of state-of-the-art 3D imaging sensors such as PMD sensor based cameras opened up possibilities for new and innovative techniques in the eld of machine vision. This paper presents an innovative approach for estimating the relative position and pose of a spacecraft by combining the strengths of a proven edge detection algorithm with the advantages of using a 3D imager in real-time machine vision applications.

@inproceedings{regoli2012a, author = {Regoli, L.; Ravandoor, K.; Schmidt, M.; Schilling, K.}, title = {Advanced Techniques for Spacecraft Motion Estimation Using PMD Sensors}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 1. CESCIT, Würzburg}, year = {2012}, }

In this paper a new approach for estimating the pose of an unknown object using Photonic Mixer Devices (PMD) based cameras is presented. The algorithm works on-line by making use of the amplitude and depth information provided at high frame rates by the camera. The aim of the work is to provide a robust pose estimation as an input for control systems in Rendezvous and Docking (RvD) manoeuvres in space.

@inproceedings{schilling2012a, author = {K. Schilling}, title = {SpaceMaster: Master in Space Science and Technology As an International Interdisciplinary Educational Effort }, booktitle = {Proceedings Advances in Control Education, Nizhny Novgorod}, year = {2012}, pages = {300-305} }

Aerospace engineers are very demanded, as there are only small numbers of well-trained specialists in this field available. In response, 2005 the international curriculum “SpaceMaster” was established in the European elite-program “Erasmus Mundus” to train talented young people in the challenging subject of space science and technology. Here six European universities cooperate and contribute their special expertise to this interdisciplinary curriculum. In particular system design techniques are emphasized, which are of interest for a broad spectrum of industrial applications extending well beyond aerospace. Emphasis is placed on realization aspects in practicals, including especially contributions to the University Würzburg’s pico-satellite program in the framework of thesis work. So far the two satellites UWE-1 and -2 have been successfully placed in orbit, but a roadmap towards formation flying offers long-term perspectives for future UWE missions. In this contribution the international university cooperation, the curriculum and the specific aspects of pico-satellite realizations are addressed, in particular with respect to attitude determination/control aspects.

@inproceedings{Cescit2012, editors = {K. Schilling and F. Leutert }, title = {Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Embedded Systems, Computational Intelligence and Telematics in Control}, year = {2012}, organization = {IFAC}, }

The increasing capabilities of modern computer hardware opened impressive new approaches for control system implementations and had a significant impact on industrial automation systems. In the organization structure of the International Federation on Automatic Control (IFAC) this fact is reflected in the establishment of the Coordinating Committee 3 on “Computers, Cognition and Communication”, focusing on the three key topics “Computers for Control”, “Computational Intelligence in Control”, and “Telematics: Control via Communication Networks”. The objective of this conference was to present - in complement to existing dedicated special conferences - a broader view on computers in control in order to cross-fertilize integrative applications. The conference emphasizes theories, applications and developments in control related research fields in computer science.
“Computers for Control” considers a broad range of computer-based control systems, spanning from system architectures, inter-computer communications, man-machine interfaces for real-time distributed computer control systems to programmable logic controllers, embedded control systems, fieldbus, standards for platforms and environments, etc.
“Computational Intelligence in Control” focuses on all aspects of knowledge-based, fuzzy, neuro-fuzzy and neural (both artificial and biologically plausible) systems and evolutionary algorithms relevant to control, driven by theory and applications.
“Telematics: Control via Communication Networks” emphasizes distributed automation systems, integrating telecommunication and control aspects to provide services to remote equipment. Related systems integrate methods of remote and supervisory control, remote sensor data acquisition, and cooperative communication for handling remote applications.
These topics were highlighted by 3 plenary presentations, summarized at the beginning of this volume, and an industrial round table discussion on "The Future of Computers in Automatic Control" by a panel of distinguished industrial researchers. More than 60 presentations by authors from 22 countries worldwide impress by their broad application range.
The conference was hosted by the University of Würzburg, founded in the year 1402, and being proud home of so far 14 Nobel laureates. This list includes Prof. Roentgen, who discovered the X-rays in his lab, which can still be visited as a museum. The city of Würzburg, founded 1300 years ago, is located at the banks of the river Main in the middle of vineyards with historic buildings like the baroque residence of the bishop (an UNESCO world heritage site) and the castle (picture on the cover of this volume), which was the prominent location of the conference dinner. So it offered also the appropriate frame for social contacts among the participating scientists.
We hope that future international research cooperation and exciting scientific progress were inspired by this conference!

@inbook{schilling2012c, author = {K. Schilling, M .Schmidt}, title = {Communication in Distributed Satellite Systems }, booktitle = {Distributed Space Missions for Earth System Monitoring}, editor = {M.D'Errico}, year = {2012}, pages = {345-354} }

Coming Soon.

@InProceedings{freimann2012, Title = {Performance comparison of tracking algorithms for low-cost ground stations}, Author = {M. Schmidt and A. Freimann and K. Schilling}, Booktitle = {UN/Japan Nano Satellite Symposium, Nagoya}, Year = {2012} }

Coming Soon!

@inbook{schmidt2012, author = {M .Schmidt, K. Schilling}, title = {Ground Station Networks for Distributed Satellite Systems }, booktitle = {Distributed Space Missions for Earth System Monitoring}, editor = {M.D'Errico}, year = {2012}, pages = {355 -371} }

Coming Soon.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Xu2012b, author = {Z. Xu and M. Schröter.and D. Necsulescu and L. Ma and K. Schilling}, title = {Formation Control of Car-like Autonomous Vehicles under Communication Delay}, booktitle = {In Proceedings of the 31st Chinese Control Conference, Hefei, China}, year = {2012}, pages = {6376-6383}, month = {July 25-27} }

The topic of this paper focuses on the development of formation controller for multiple car-like mobile robots. The studied robot formation is constructed under Leader-Follower approach, so that the follower robots are able to keep constant desired distances and relative bearing angles with respect to the leader. Affected by the data transmission delay between the leader and follower robots, the formation performance is degraded, which may even lead to undesired collision of the followers. A PD-type controller is proposed to compensate the delay effect, which is proved to be stable and effective in formation keeping. Some initial studies on parameter selection were also carried out. Both simulations and hardware experiments support the implementation of this type of controller, which also showed the capability of dealing with variable time delays in the communication channel.

@INPROCEEDINGS{Xu2012a, author = {Z. Xu and R. Heß and K. Schilling}, title = {Constraints of Potential Field for Obstacle Avoidance on Car-like Mobile Robots}, booktitle = {In Proceedings of the1st Conference on Embedded Systems, Computational Intelligence and Telematics in Control, Würzburg, Germany}, year = {2012}, pages = {169-175}, month = {3-5 April}, }

The well-known potential field method for obstacle avoidance in the scope of mobile robots is discussed in this paper. Particular attention is on the car-like mobile robots, which impose practical limitations on the application of potential field method due to its limited speed and curvature in motion. Along with the review of some recent studies on this topic, we point out the necessity of implementing a nonholonomic motion planner and propose some extensions to other potential-field-related methods to deal with the constraints of car-like robots. Two exemplary scenarios based on our extensions are simulated to prove their feasibility in application.