The PCTB is a revolutionary tool to support ECE research at The University of Texas at Austin. It promotes agile investigation by providing a central point of collaboration for the varied disciplines covered by the department. While the facility has a special focus on heterogeneous and mobile interactions, the physical space, hardware, software, and rich application scenarios link to form a potent catalyst for research at every academic level. We support research in sensor management, network coding, wireless protocols, localization, multi-agent coordination, fault-tolerant systems, and software simulation validation. Eventually, the test-bed will also support research in distributed teams, project management, and maintenance of software and hardware artifacts.
We envision PCTB research projects will fall into two major symbiotic project types: comparison, and extension. Comparison based projects will supplant pre-existing functionality provided as part of the core system with a new approach to solving the same problem. These original components will provide a common supporting infrastructure to reduce the startup costs for each project while simultaneously providing vetted, uncontrived scenarios to validate the work. PCTB extension projects will use the facilities hardware and software components as a scaffolding to bootstrap the testing of new research ideas. As these projects mature, they may be included in the core facility to provide support for future comparison ventures. Both project types will also benefit from the amortized support such as build system, issue tracking, and equipment maintenance.
By December 2009, we expect to move into our new space, specifically dedicated to assembly, storage, and small-scale testing. We also expect to have a number of computer and assembly workstations setup to support projects. We will also have a small group of dedicated servers installed in the ECE server room and running simulations to support wireless network research.
We have successfully incorporated control software for the Roomba Create robots, and are currently working on integrating drivers for the Segway Robotic Mobility Platforms. A custom platform "Proteus" that will provide car-like mobility is also under construction. The Proteus robots are based on a working prototype and we expect to have them fully assembled by year's end.
A number of small research projects have already begun to use the PCTB's equipment. An undergraduate researcher is working to control the Roombas by tilting a SunSPOT (a handheld device containing accelerometers). A team of undergraduates are developing both WiFi-based localization and situation awareness console for their Senior Design project. We are also working to integrate the results of a recent senior design project to aggregate distance sensor readings in hardware. These projects will be completed before the end of 2008, but there are a number of other projects that are currently being investigated or designed for completion in the next year.
This project is sponsored by the Mobile and Pervasive Computing Group and the LINC group with help from Excellence in Distributed Global Environments (EDGE).
