The
commoditization of computation, sensing technology, and communication
has enabled the conceptualization of new physical systems with large
levels of autonomy. In many instances, we are no longer limited by
physical hardware, but rather our ability to design and deploy reliable
systems that take advantage of these new capabilities. In this talk I
will discuss some of our contributions in the area of control and system
design, and our attempts to tame and manage the complexity inherent in
high performance autonomous systems. An example is Kiva Systems, a
rapidly growing Boston area
start-up company that provides a customer solution involving hundreds of
autonomous vehicles, which could potentially be the first "killer-app"
for autonomous, distributed, and networked mobile robots in an
industrial setting.