Placement and wiring of vast amount of sensor elements on the 3-dimensionally configured robot sur-face to form soft sensor skin is very difficult with the traditional technology. In this paper we propose a new method...Placement and wiring of vast amount of sensor elements on the 3-dimensionally configured robot sur-face to form soft sensor skin is very difficult with the traditional technology. In this paper we propose a new method to realize such a skin.By implanting infrared sensors array in an elastic body, we obtain an elastic and tough sensor skin that can be shaped freely.The developed sensor skin is a large-area, flexi-ble array of infrared sensors with data processing capabilities.Depending on the skin electronics, it en-dows its carrier with an ability to sense its surroundings.The structure, the method of infrared sensor sig-nal processing, and basic experiments of sensor skin are presented. The validity of the infrared sensor skin is investigated by preliminary obstacle avoidance trial.展开更多
Monocular vision-based navigation is a considerable ability for a home mobile robot. However, due to diverse disturbances, helping robots avoid obstacles, especially nonManhattan obstacles, remains a big challenge. In...Monocular vision-based navigation is a considerable ability for a home mobile robot. However, due to diverse disturbances, helping robots avoid obstacles, especially nonManhattan obstacles, remains a big challenge. In indoor environments, there are many spatial right-corners that are projected into two dimensional projections with special geometric configurations. These projections, which consist of three lines,might enable us to estimate their position and orientation in 3 D scenes. In this paper, we present a method for home robots to avoid non-Manhattan obstacles in indoor environments from a monocular camera. The approach first detects non-Manhattan obstacles. Through analyzing geometric features and constraints,it is possible to estimate posture differences between orientation of the robot and non-Manhattan obstacles. Finally according to the convergence of posture differences, the robot can adjust its orientation to keep pace with the pose of detected non-Manhattan obstacles, making it possible avoid these obstacles by itself. Based on geometric inferences, the proposed approach requires no prior training or any knowledge of the camera’s internal parameters,making it practical for robots navigation. Furthermore, the method is robust to errors in calibration and image noise. We compared the errors from corners of estimated non-Manhattan obstacles against the ground truth. Furthermore, we evaluate the validity of convergence of differences between the robot orientation and the posture of non-Manhattan obstacles. The experimental results showed that our method is capable of avoiding non-Manhattan obstacles, meeting the requirements for indoor robot navigation.展开更多
During marine missions,AUVs are susceptible to external disturbances,such as obstacles,ocean currents,etc.,which can easily cause mission failure or disconnection.In this paper,considering the strong nonlinearities,ex...During marine missions,AUVs are susceptible to external disturbances,such as obstacles,ocean currents,etc.,which can easily cause mission failure or disconnection.In this paper,considering the strong nonlinearities,external disturbances and obstacles,the kinematic and dynamic model of bioinspired Spherical Underwater Robot(SUR)was described.Subsequently,the waypoints-based trajectory tracking with obstacles and uncertainties was proposed for SUR to guarantee its safety and stability.Next,the Lyapunov theory was adopted to verify the stability and the Slide Mode Control(SMC)method is used to verify the robustness of the control system.In addition,a series of simulations were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed control strategy.Some tests,including path-following,static and moving obstacle avoidance were performed which verified the feasibility,robustness and effectiveness of the designed control scheme.Finally,a series of experiments in real environment were performed to verify the performance of the control strategy.The simulation and experimental results of the study supplied clues to the improvement of the path following capability and multi-obstacle avoidance of AUVs.展开更多
This work proposes an online collaborative hunting strategy for multi-robot systems based on obstacle-avoiding Voronoi cells in a complex dynamic environment. This involves firstly designing the construction method us...This work proposes an online collaborative hunting strategy for multi-robot systems based on obstacle-avoiding Voronoi cells in a complex dynamic environment. This involves firstly designing the construction method using a support vector machine(SVM) based on the definition of buffered Voronoi cells(BVCs). Based on the safe collision-free region of the robots, the boundary weights between the robots and the obstacles are dynamically updated such that the robots are tangent to the buffered Voronoi safety areas without intersecting with the obstacles. Then, the robots are controlled to move within their own buffered Voronoi safety area to achieve collision-avoidance with other robots and obstacles. The next step involves proposing a hunting method that optimizes collaboration between the pursuers and evaders. Some hunting points are generated and distributed evenly around a circle. Next, the pursuers are assigned to match the optimal points based on the Hungarian algorithm.Then, a hunting controller is designed to improve the containment capability and minimize containment time based on collision risk. Finally, simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed cooperative hunting method is more competitive in terms of time and travel distance.展开更多
This work presents a Fuzzy Logic Controller （FLC） assigned to control a robotic arm motion while avoiding the obstacles that may face the robotic arm in its movement from the initial point to the final point in an o...This work presents a Fuzzy Logic Controller （FLC） assigned to control a robotic arm motion while avoiding the obstacles that may face the robotic arm in its movement from the initial point to the final point in an optimized manner, in addition to avoid the singularity phenomenon, and without any exceeding of the physical constraints of the robot arm. A real platform （5 DOF ＂Degree Of Freedom＂ Lab Volt 5150 Robotic Arm） is used to carry this work practically, in addition to providing it by a vision sensor, where a new approach is proposed to inspect the robot work environment using a designed integrated MATLAB program having the ability to recognize the changeable locations of each of the robotic arm＇s end-effector, the goal, and the multi existed obstacles through a recorded film taken by a webcam, then these information will be treated using the FLC where its outputs represent the values that must be delivered to the robot to adopt them in its next steps till reaching to the goal in collision-free movements. The experimental results showed that the developed robotic ann travels successfully from Start to Goal where a high percentage of accuracy in arriving to Goal was achieved, and without colliding with any obstacle ensuring the harmonization between the theoretical part and the experimental part in achieving the best results of controlling the robotic arm＇s motion.展开更多
In this research work,a hierarchical controller has been designed for an autonomous navigation robot to avoid unexpected moving obstacles where the state and action spaces are continuous.The proposed scheme consists o...In this research work,a hierarchical controller has been designed for an autonomous navigation robot to avoid unexpected moving obstacles where the state and action spaces are continuous.The proposed scheme consists of two parts:1)a controller with a high-level approximate reinforcement learning(ARL)technique for choosing an optimal trajectory in autonomous navigation;and 2)a low-level,appearance-based visual servoing(ABVS)controller which controls and execute the motion of the robot.A novel approach for path planning and visual servoing has been proposed by the combined system framework.The characteristics of the on-board camera which is equipped on the robot is naturally suitable for conducting the reinforcement learning algorithm.Regarding the ARL controller,the computational overhead is quite low thanks to the fact that a knowledge of obstacle motion is not necessary.The developed scheme has been implemented and validated in a simulation system of obstacle avoidance.It is noted that findings of the proposed method are successfully verified by obtaining an optimal robotic plan motion strategy.展开更多
Road obstacles that unexpectedly appear due to vehicle breakdowns and accidents are major causes of fatal road accidents.Connected Autonomous Vehicles(CAVs)can be used to avoid collisions to ensure road safety through...Road obstacles that unexpectedly appear due to vehicle breakdowns and accidents are major causes of fatal road accidents.Connected Autonomous Vehicles(CAVs)can be used to avoid collisions to ensure road safety through cooperative sensing and driving.However,the collision avoidance performance of CAVs with unexpected obstacles has not been studied in the existing works.In this paper,we first design a platoon-based collision avoidance framework for CAVs.In this framework,we deploy a Digital Twin(DT)system at the head vehicle in a platoon to reduce communication overhead and decision-making delay based on a proposed trajectory planning scheme.In addition,a DT-assistant system is deployed on the assistant vehicle to monitor vehicles out of the sensing range of the head vehicle for the maintenance of the DT system.In this case,the transmission frequency of kinetic states of platoon members can be reduced to ensure low-overhead communication.Moreover,we design a variable resource reservation interval that can ensure DT synchronization between DT and the assistant system with high reliability.To further improve road safety,an urgency level-based trajectory planning algorithm is proposed to avoid unexpected obstacles considering different levels of emergency risks.Simulation results show that our DT system-based scheme can achieve significant performance gains in unexpected obstacle avoidance.Compared to the existing schemes,it can reduce collisions by 95%and is faster by about 10%passing by the unexpected obstacle.展开更多
As the problem of surface garbage pollution becomes more serious,it is necessary to improve the efficiency of garbage inspection and picking rather than traditional manual methods.Due to lightness,Unmanned Aerial Vehi...As the problem of surface garbage pollution becomes more serious,it is necessary to improve the efficiency of garbage inspection and picking rather than traditional manual methods.Due to lightness,Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)can traverse the entire water surface in a short time through their flight field of view.In addition,Unmanned Surface Vessels(USVs)can provide battery replacement and pick up garbage.In this paper,we innovatively establish a system framework for the collaboration between UAV and USVs,and develop an automatic water cleaning strategy.First,on the basis of the partition principle,we propose a collaborative coverage path algorithm based on UAV off-site takeoff and landing to achieve global inspection.Second,we design a task scheduling and assignment algorithm for USVs to balance the garbage loads based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm.Finally,based on the swarm intelligence algorithm,we also design an autonomous obstacle avoidance path planning algorithm for USVs to realize autonomous navigation and collaborative cleaning.The system can simultaneously perform inspection and clearance tasks under certain constraints.The simulation results show that the proposed algorithms have higher generality and flexibility while effectively improving computational efficiency and reducing actual cleaning costs compared with other schemes.展开更多
Autonomous trucks have the potential to enhance both safety and convenience in intelligent transportation.However,their maximum speed and ability to navigate a variety of driving conditions,particularly uneven roads,a...Autonomous trucks have the potential to enhance both safety and convenience in intelligent transportation.However,their maximum speed and ability to navigate a variety of driving conditions,particularly uneven roads,are limited by a high center of gravity,which increases the risk of rollover.Road bulges,sinkholes,and unexpected debris all present additional challenges for autonomous trucks’operational design,which current perception and decisionmaking algorithms often overlook.To mitigate rollover risks and improve adaptability to damaged roads,this paper presents a novel Road Obstacle-Involved Trajectory Planner(ROITP).The planner categorizes road obstacles using a learning-based algorithm.A discrete optimization algorithm selects a multi-objective optimal trajectory while taking into account constraints and objective functions derived from truck dynamics.Validation across various scenarios on a hardware-in-loop platform demonstrates that the proposed planner is effective and feasible for real-time implementation.展开更多
Camera Pose Estimating from point and line correspondences is critical in various applications,including robotics,augmented reality,3D reconstruction,and autonomous navigation.Existing methods,such as the Perspective-...Camera Pose Estimating from point and line correspondences is critical in various applications,including robotics,augmented reality,3D reconstruction,and autonomous navigation.Existing methods,such as the Perspective-n-Point(PnP)and Perspective-n-Line(PnL)approaches,offer limited accuracy and robustness in environments with occlusions,noise,or sparse feature data.This paper presents a unified solution,Efficient and Accurate Pose Estimation from Point and Line Correspondences(EAPnPL),combining point-based and linebased constraints to improve pose estimation accuracy and computational efficiency,particularly in low-altitude UAV navigation and obstacle avoidance.The proposed method utilizes quaternion parameterization of the rotation matrix to overcome singularity issues and address challenges in traditional rotation matrix-based formulations.A hybrid optimization framework is developed to integrate both point and line constraints,providing a more robust and stable solution in complex scenarios.The method is evaluated using synthetic and realworld datasets,demonstrating significant improvements in performance over existing techniques.The results indicate that the EAPnPL method enhances accuracy and reduces computational complexity,making it suitable for real-time applications in autonomous UAV systems.This approach offers a promising solution to the limitations of existing camera pose estimation methods,with potential applications in low-altitude navigation,autonomous robotics,and 3D scene reconstruction.展开更多
Intelligent robots are increasingly being deployed across industries ranging from manufacturing to household applications and outdoor exploration.Their autonomous obstacle avoidance capabilities in complex environment...Intelligent robots are increasingly being deployed across industries ranging from manufacturing to household applications and outdoor exploration.Their autonomous obstacle avoidance capabilities in complex environments have become a critical factor determining operational stability.Multimodal perception technology,which integrates visual,auditory,tactile,and LiDAR data,provides robots with comprehensive environmental awareness.By establishing efficient autonomous obstacle avoidance decision-making mechanisms based on this information,the system’s adaptability to challenging scenarios can be significantly enhanced.This study investigates the integration of multimodal perception with autonomous obstacle avoidance decision-making,analyzing the acquisition and processing of perceptual information,core modules and logic of decision-making mechanisms,and proposing optimization strategies for specific scenarios.The research aims to provide theoretical references for advancing autonomous obstacle avoidance technology in intelligent robots,enabling safer and more flexible movement in diverse environments.展开更多
Advancements in artificial intelligence and big data technologies have led to the gradual emergence of intelligent ships,which are expected to dominate the future of maritime transportation.Supporting the navigation o...Advancements in artificial intelligence and big data technologies have led to the gradual emergence of intelligent ships,which are expected to dominate the future of maritime transportation.Supporting the navigation of intelligent ships,route planning technologies have developed many route planning algorithms that prioritize economy and safety.This paper conducts an in-depth study of algorithm efficiency for a route planning problem,proposing an intelligent ship route planning algorithm based on the adaptive step size Informed-RRT^(*).This algorithm can quickly plan a short route according to automatic obstacle avoidance and is suitable for planning the routes of intelligent ships.Results show that the adaptive step size Informed-RRT^(*) algorithm can shorten the optimal route length by approximately 13.05%while ensuring the running time of the planning algorithm and avoiding approximately 23.64%of redundant sampling nodes.The improved algorithm effectively circumvents unnecessary calculations and reduces a large amount of redundant sampling data,thus improving the efficiency of route planning.In a complex water environment,the unique adaptive step size mechanism enables this algorithm to prevent restricted search tree expansion,showing strong search ability and robustness,which is of practical significance for the development of intelligent ships.展开更多
This paper presents a quadcopter system for naviga-tion in outdoor urban environments.The main contributions include the hardware design,the establishment of global occu-pancy grid maps based on millimeter-wave radars...This paper presents a quadcopter system for naviga-tion in outdoor urban environments.The main contributions include the hardware design,the establishment of global occu-pancy grid maps based on millimeter-wave radars,the trajec-tory planning scheme based on optimal virtual tube methods,and the controller structure based on dynamics.The proposed system focuses on utilizing a compact and lightweight quadro-tor with sensors to achieve navigation that conforms to the direction of urban roads with high computational efficiency and safety.Our work is an application of millimeter-wave radars and virtual tube planning for obstacle avoidance in navigation.The validness and effectiveness of the proposed system are verified by experiments.展开更多
Grasping is one of the most fundamental operations in modern robotics applications.While deep rein-forcement learning(DRL)has demonstrated strong potential in robotics,there is too much emphasis on maximizing the cumu...Grasping is one of the most fundamental operations in modern robotics applications.While deep rein-forcement learning(DRL)has demonstrated strong potential in robotics,there is too much emphasis on maximizing the cumulative reward in executing tasks,and the potential safety risks are often ignored.In this paper,an optimization method based on safe reinforcement learning(Safe RL)is proposed to address the robotic grasping problem under safety constraints.Specifically,considering the obstacle avoidance constraints of the system,the grasping problem of the manipulator is modeled as a Constrained Markov Decision Process(CMDP).The Lagrange multiplier and a dynamic weighted mechanism are introduced into the Proximal Policy Optimization(PPO)framework,leading to the development of the dynamic weighted Lagrange PPO(DWL-PPO)algorithm.The behavior of violating safety constraints is punished while the policy is optimized in this proposed method.In addition,the orientation control of the end-effector is included in the reward function,and a compound reward function adapted to changes in pose is designed.Ultimately,the efficacy and advantages of the suggested method are proved by extensive training and testing in the Pybullet simulator.The results of grasping experiments reveal that the recommended approach provides superior safety and efficiency compared with other advanced RL methods and achieves a good trade-off between model learning and risk aversion.展开更多
In order to improve a mobile robot＇s autonomy in unknown environments, a novel intelligent controller is designed. The proposed controller is based on fuzzy logic with the aim of assisting a multi-sensor equipped mob...In order to improve a mobile robot＇s autonomy in unknown environments, a novel intelligent controller is designed. The proposed controller is based on fuzzy logic with the aim of assisting a multi-sensor equipped mobile robot to safely navigate in an indoor environment. First, the designs of two behaviors for a robot＇s autonomous navigation are described, including path tracking and obstacle avoidance, which emulate human driving behaviors and reduce the complexity of the robot＇s navigation problems in unknown environments. Secondly, the two behaviors are combined by using a finite state machine （FSM）, which ensures that the robot can safely track a predefined path in an unknown indoor environment. The inputs to this controller are the readings from the sensors. The corresponding output is the desired direction of the robot. Finally, both the simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.展开更多
A robot intelligent path planning system RIPPS is developed, which can be utilized for a robot off line programming tool. The system consists of three parts: geometric modeler, kinematic modeler and path planer. The...A robot intelligent path planning system RIPPS is developed, which can be utilized for a robot off line programming tool. The system consists of three parts: geometric modeler, kinematic modeler and path planer. The geometric modeler is used to construct the robot working environment cluttered with obstacles and the robot kinematic modeler to define robot manipulators by the input parameters. Giving robot start and the goal configurations, the path planer can produce a quasi optimal path. By transforming obstacles into the C space to form C obstacles, the path searching is performed in C space. The planning simulations are performed on a SGI workstation, the future research is to implement the planer on a commercial robot manipulators.展开更多
Optimal path planning avoiding obstacles is among the most attractive applications of mobile robots(MRs)in both research and education.In this paper,an optimal collision-free algorithm is designed and implemented prac...Optimal path planning avoiding obstacles is among the most attractive applications of mobile robots(MRs)in both research and education.In this paper,an optimal collision-free algorithm is designed and implemented practically based on an improved Dijkstra algorithm.To achieve this research objectives,first,the MR obstacle-free environment is modeled as a diagraph including nodes,edges and weights.Second,Dijkstra algorithm is used offline to generate the shortest path driving the MR from a starting point to a target point.During its movement,the robot should follow the previously obtained path and stop at each node to test if there is an obstacle between the current node and the immediately following node.For this aim,the MR was equipped with an ultrasonic sensor used as obstacle detector.If an obstacle is found,the MR updates its diagraph by excluding the corresponding node.Then,Dijkstra algorithm runs on the modified diagraph.This procedure is repeated until reaching the target point.To verify the efficiency of the proposed approach,a simulation was carried out on a hand-made MR and an environment including 9 nodes,19 edges and 2 obstacles.The obtained optimal path avoiding obstacles has been transferred into motion control and implemented practically using line tracking sensors.This study has shown that the improved Dijkstra algorithm can efficiently solve optimal path planning in environments including obstacles and that STEAM-based MRs are efficient cost-effective tools to practically implement the designed algorithm.展开更多
In this paper,a bio-inspired path planning algorithm in 3 D space is proposed.The algorithm imitates the basic mechanisms of plant growth,including phototropism,negative geotropism and branching.The algorithm proposed...In this paper,a bio-inspired path planning algorithm in 3 D space is proposed.The algorithm imitates the basic mechanisms of plant growth,including phototropism,negative geotropism and branching.The algorithm proposed in this paper solves the dynamic obstacle avoidance path planning problem of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)in the case of unknown environment maps.Compared with other path planning algorithms,the algorithm has the advantages of fast path planning speed and fewer route points,and can achieve the effect of low delay real-time path planning.The feasibility of the algorithm is verified in the Gazebo simulator based on the Robot Operating System(ROS)platform.Finally,an actual UAV autonomous obstacle avoidance path planning experimental platform is built,and a UAV obstacle avoidance path planning flight test is carried out based on this actual environment.展开更多
The paper proposes a Virtual Target Guidance(VTG)-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC) scheme for formation control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First, a framework of distributed MPC scheme is...The paper proposes a Virtual Target Guidance(VTG)-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC) scheme for formation control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First, a framework of distributed MPC scheme is designed in which each UAV only shares the information with its neighbors, and the obtained local Finite-Horizon Optimal Control Problem(FHOCP) can be solved by swarm intelligent optimization algorithm.Then, a VTG approach is developed and integrated into the distributed MPC scheme to achieve trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance.Further, an event-triggered mechanism is proposed to reduce the computational burden for UAV formation control, which takes into consideration the predictive state errors as well as the convergence of cost function.Numerical simulations show that the proposed VTG-based distributed MPC scheme is more computationally efficient to achieve formation control of multiple UAVs in comparison with the traditional distributed MPC method.展开更多
Research on unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV)has been increasingly popular in the past decades,and UAVs have been widely used in industrial inspection,remote sensing for mapping&surveying,rescuing,and so on.Neverthele...Research on unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV)has been increasingly popular in the past decades,and UAVs have been widely used in industrial inspection,remote sensing for mapping&surveying,rescuing,and so on.Nevertheless,the limited autonomous navigation capability severely hampers the application of UAVs in complex environments,such as GPS-denied areas.Previously,researchers mainly focused on the use of laser or radar sensors for UAV navigation.With the rapid development of computer vision,vision-based methods,which utilize cheaper and more flexible visual sensors,have shown great advantages in the field of UAV navigation.The purpose of this article is to present a comprehensive literature review of the vision-based methods for UAV navigation.Specifically on visual localization and mapping,obstacle avoidance and path planning,which compose the essential parts of visual navigation.Furthermore,throughout this article,we will have an insight into the prospect of the UAV navigation and the challenges to be faced.展开更多
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （No.50105002）.
文摘Placement and wiring of vast amount of sensor elements on the 3-dimensionally configured robot sur-face to form soft sensor skin is very difficult with the traditional technology. In this paper we propose a new method to realize such a skin.By implanting infrared sensors array in an elastic body, we obtain an elastic and tough sensor skin that can be shaped freely.The developed sensor skin is a large-area, flexi-ble array of infrared sensors with data processing capabilities.Depending on the skin electronics, it en-dows its carrier with an ability to sense its surroundings.The structure, the method of infrared sensor sig-nal processing, and basic experiments of sensor skin are presented. The validity of the infrared sensor skin is investigated by preliminary obstacle avoidance trial.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61771146,61375122)the National Thirteen 5-Year Plan for Science and Technology(2017YFC1703303)in part by Shanghai Science and Technology Development Funds(13dz2260200,13511504300)。
文摘Monocular vision-based navigation is a considerable ability for a home mobile robot. However, due to diverse disturbances, helping robots avoid obstacles, especially nonManhattan obstacles, remains a big challenge. In indoor environments, there are many spatial right-corners that are projected into two dimensional projections with special geometric configurations. These projections, which consist of three lines,might enable us to estimate their position and orientation in 3 D scenes. In this paper, we present a method for home robots to avoid non-Manhattan obstacles in indoor environments from a monocular camera. The approach first detects non-Manhattan obstacles. Through analyzing geometric features and constraints,it is possible to estimate posture differences between orientation of the robot and non-Manhattan obstacles. Finally according to the convergence of posture differences, the robot can adjust its orientation to keep pace with the pose of detected non-Manhattan obstacles, making it possible avoid these obstacles by itself. Based on geometric inferences, the proposed approach requires no prior training or any knowledge of the camera’s internal parameters,making it practical for robots navigation. Furthermore, the method is robust to errors in calibration and image noise. We compared the errors from corners of estimated non-Manhattan obstacles against the ground truth. Furthermore, we evaluate the validity of convergence of differences between the robot orientation and the posture of non-Manhattan obstacles. The experimental results showed that our method is capable of avoiding non-Manhattan obstacles, meeting the requirements for indoor robot navigation.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61703305,in part by the National High TechResearch and Development Program(863 Program)of China under Grant 2015AA043202+3 种基金in part by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(SPS)KAKENHI under Grant 15K2120in part by the Key Research Program of the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin under Grant 18JCZDJC38500in part by the Innovative Cooperation Project of Tianjin Scientific and Technological Support under Grant 18PTZWHZ00090in part by the China Scholarship Council(CSC)for his doctoral research at Kagawa University under Grant 202208050040.
文摘During marine missions,AUVs are susceptible to external disturbances,such as obstacles,ocean currents,etc.,which can easily cause mission failure or disconnection.In this paper,considering the strong nonlinearities,external disturbances and obstacles,the kinematic and dynamic model of bioinspired Spherical Underwater Robot(SUR)was described.Subsequently,the waypoints-based trajectory tracking with obstacles and uncertainties was proposed for SUR to guarantee its safety and stability.Next,the Lyapunov theory was adopted to verify the stability and the Slide Mode Control(SMC)method is used to verify the robustness of the control system.In addition,a series of simulations were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed control strategy.Some tests,including path-following,static and moving obstacle avoidance were performed which verified the feasibility,robustness and effectiveness of the designed control scheme.Finally,a series of experiments in real environment were performed to verify the performance of the control strategy.The simulation and experimental results of the study supplied clues to the improvement of the path following capability and multi-obstacle avoidance of AUVs.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62273007,61973023)Project of Cultivation for Young Top-motch Talents of Beijing Municipal Institutions (BPHR202203032)。
文摘This work proposes an online collaborative hunting strategy for multi-robot systems based on obstacle-avoiding Voronoi cells in a complex dynamic environment. This involves firstly designing the construction method using a support vector machine(SVM) based on the definition of buffered Voronoi cells(BVCs). Based on the safe collision-free region of the robots, the boundary weights between the robots and the obstacles are dynamically updated such that the robots are tangent to the buffered Voronoi safety areas without intersecting with the obstacles. Then, the robots are controlled to move within their own buffered Voronoi safety area to achieve collision-avoidance with other robots and obstacles. The next step involves proposing a hunting method that optimizes collaboration between the pursuers and evaders. Some hunting points are generated and distributed evenly around a circle. Next, the pursuers are assigned to match the optimal points based on the Hungarian algorithm.Then, a hunting controller is designed to improve the containment capability and minimize containment time based on collision risk. Finally, simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed cooperative hunting method is more competitive in terms of time and travel distance.
文摘This work presents a Fuzzy Logic Controller （FLC） assigned to control a robotic arm motion while avoiding the obstacles that may face the robotic arm in its movement from the initial point to the final point in an optimized manner, in addition to avoid the singularity phenomenon, and without any exceeding of the physical constraints of the robot arm. A real platform （5 DOF ＂Degree Of Freedom＂ Lab Volt 5150 Robotic Arm） is used to carry this work practically, in addition to providing it by a vision sensor, where a new approach is proposed to inspect the robot work environment using a designed integrated MATLAB program having the ability to recognize the changeable locations of each of the robotic arm＇s end-effector, the goal, and the multi existed obstacles through a recorded film taken by a webcam, then these information will be treated using the FLC where its outputs represent the values that must be delivered to the robot to adopt them in its next steps till reaching to the goal in collision-free movements. The experimental results showed that the developed robotic ann travels successfully from Start to Goal where a high percentage of accuracy in arriving to Goal was achieved, and without colliding with any obstacle ensuring the harmonization between the theoretical part and the experimental part in achieving the best results of controlling the robotic arm＇s motion.
基金supported by research grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council(NSERC)of Canadathe British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund(BCKDF)+1 种基金the Canada Foundation for Innovation(CFI)the Canada Research Chair in Mechatronics and Industrial Automation held by C.W.de Silva
文摘In this research work,a hierarchical controller has been designed for an autonomous navigation robot to avoid unexpected moving obstacles where the state and action spaces are continuous.The proposed scheme consists of two parts:1)a controller with a high-level approximate reinforcement learning(ARL)technique for choosing an optimal trajectory in autonomous navigation;and 2)a low-level,appearance-based visual servoing(ABVS)controller which controls and execute the motion of the robot.A novel approach for path planning and visual servoing has been proposed by the combined system framework.The characteristics of the on-board camera which is equipped on the robot is naturally suitable for conducting the reinforcement learning algorithm.Regarding the ARL controller,the computational overhead is quite low thanks to the fact that a knowledge of obstacle motion is not necessary.The developed scheme has been implemented and validated in a simulation system of obstacle avoidance.It is noted that findings of the proposed method are successfully verified by obtaining an optimal robotic plan motion strategy.
基金partly supported by National Key R&D Program of China(No.2018YFE0117500)National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.62171104)+2 种基金EU Horizon2020(824019),EU Horizon2020(101022280)Horizon Europe(101086228)the UK EPSRC(EP/Y027787/1)。
文摘Road obstacles that unexpectedly appear due to vehicle breakdowns and accidents are major causes of fatal road accidents.Connected Autonomous Vehicles(CAVs)can be used to avoid collisions to ensure road safety through cooperative sensing and driving.However,the collision avoidance performance of CAVs with unexpected obstacles has not been studied in the existing works.In this paper,we first design a platoon-based collision avoidance framework for CAVs.In this framework,we deploy a Digital Twin(DT)system at the head vehicle in a platoon to reduce communication overhead and decision-making delay based on a proposed trajectory planning scheme.In addition,a DT-assistant system is deployed on the assistant vehicle to monitor vehicles out of the sensing range of the head vehicle for the maintenance of the DT system.In this case,the transmission frequency of kinetic states of platoon members can be reduced to ensure low-overhead communication.Moreover,we design a variable resource reservation interval that can ensure DT synchronization between DT and the assistant system with high reliability.To further improve road safety,an urgency level-based trajectory planning algorithm is proposed to avoid unexpected obstacles considering different levels of emergency risks.Simulation results show that our DT system-based scheme can achieve significant performance gains in unexpected obstacle avoidance.Compared to the existing schemes,it can reduce collisions by 95%and is faster by about 10%passing by the unexpected obstacle.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 62071189,62201220 and 62171189by the Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province under Grant 2021BAA026 and 2020BAB120。
文摘As the problem of surface garbage pollution becomes more serious,it is necessary to improve the efficiency of garbage inspection and picking rather than traditional manual methods.Due to lightness,Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)can traverse the entire water surface in a short time through their flight field of view.In addition,Unmanned Surface Vessels(USVs)can provide battery replacement and pick up garbage.In this paper,we innovatively establish a system framework for the collaboration between UAV and USVs,and develop an automatic water cleaning strategy.First,on the basis of the partition principle,we propose a collaborative coverage path algorithm based on UAV off-site takeoff and landing to achieve global inspection.Second,we design a task scheduling and assignment algorithm for USVs to balance the garbage loads based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm.Finally,based on the swarm intelligence algorithm,we also design an autonomous obstacle avoidance path planning algorithm for USVs to realize autonomous navigation and collaborative cleaning.The system can simultaneously perform inspection and clearance tasks under certain constraints.The simulation results show that the proposed algorithms have higher generality and flexibility while effectively improving computational efficiency and reducing actual cleaning costs compared with other schemes.
基金Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52072215, 52221005, 52272386)Beijing Municipal Natrual Science Foundation (Grant No. L243025)+2 种基金National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFB2503003)State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Green Vehicle and Mobilityfundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
文摘Autonomous trucks have the potential to enhance both safety and convenience in intelligent transportation.However,their maximum speed and ability to navigate a variety of driving conditions,particularly uneven roads,are limited by a high center of gravity,which increases the risk of rollover.Road bulges,sinkholes,and unexpected debris all present additional challenges for autonomous trucks’operational design,which current perception and decisionmaking algorithms often overlook.To mitigate rollover risks and improve adaptability to damaged roads,this paper presents a novel Road Obstacle-Involved Trajectory Planner(ROITP).The planner categorizes road obstacles using a learning-based algorithm.A discrete optimization algorithm selects a multi-objective optimal trajectory while taking into account constraints and objective functions derived from truck dynamics.Validation across various scenarios on a hardware-in-loop platform demonstrates that the proposed planner is effective and feasible for real-time implementation.
基金funded by the Jiangsu Province Postgraduate Scientific Research and Practice Innovation Program(SJCX240449)projectthe Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology Talent Startup Fund(2022r078).
文摘Camera Pose Estimating from point and line correspondences is critical in various applications,including robotics,augmented reality,3D reconstruction,and autonomous navigation.Existing methods,such as the Perspective-n-Point(PnP)and Perspective-n-Line(PnL)approaches,offer limited accuracy and robustness in environments with occlusions,noise,or sparse feature data.This paper presents a unified solution,Efficient and Accurate Pose Estimation from Point and Line Correspondences(EAPnPL),combining point-based and linebased constraints to improve pose estimation accuracy and computational efficiency,particularly in low-altitude UAV navigation and obstacle avoidance.The proposed method utilizes quaternion parameterization of the rotation matrix to overcome singularity issues and address challenges in traditional rotation matrix-based formulations.A hybrid optimization framework is developed to integrate both point and line constraints,providing a more robust and stable solution in complex scenarios.The method is evaluated using synthetic and realworld datasets,demonstrating significant improvements in performance over existing techniques.The results indicate that the EAPnPL method enhances accuracy and reduces computational complexity,making it suitable for real-time applications in autonomous UAV systems.This approach offers a promising solution to the limitations of existing camera pose estimation methods,with potential applications in low-altitude navigation,autonomous robotics,and 3D scene reconstruction.
文摘Intelligent robots are increasingly being deployed across industries ranging from manufacturing to household applications and outdoor exploration.Their autonomous obstacle avoidance capabilities in complex environments have become a critical factor determining operational stability.Multimodal perception technology,which integrates visual,auditory,tactile,and LiDAR data,provides robots with comprehensive environmental awareness.By establishing efficient autonomous obstacle avoidance decision-making mechanisms based on this information,the system’s adaptability to challenging scenarios can be significantly enhanced.This study investigates the integration of multimodal perception with autonomous obstacle avoidance decision-making,analyzing the acquisition and processing of perceptual information,core modules and logic of decision-making mechanisms,and proposing optimization strategies for specific scenarios.The research aims to provide theoretical references for advancing autonomous obstacle avoidance technology in intelligent robots,enabling safer and more flexible movement in diverse environments.
文摘Advancements in artificial intelligence and big data technologies have led to the gradual emergence of intelligent ships,which are expected to dominate the future of maritime transportation.Supporting the navigation of intelligent ships,route planning technologies have developed many route planning algorithms that prioritize economy and safety.This paper conducts an in-depth study of algorithm efficiency for a route planning problem,proposing an intelligent ship route planning algorithm based on the adaptive step size Informed-RRT^(*).This algorithm can quickly plan a short route according to automatic obstacle avoidance and is suitable for planning the routes of intelligent ships.Results show that the adaptive step size Informed-RRT^(*) algorithm can shorten the optimal route length by approximately 13.05%while ensuring the running time of the planning algorithm and avoiding approximately 23.64%of redundant sampling nodes.The improved algorithm effectively circumvents unnecessary calculations and reduces a large amount of redundant sampling data,thus improving the efficiency of route planning.In a complex water environment,the unique adaptive step size mechanism enables this algorithm to prevent restricted search tree expansion,showing strong search ability and robustness,which is of practical significance for the development of intelligent ships.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2022YFA1004703)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62088101).
文摘This paper presents a quadcopter system for naviga-tion in outdoor urban environments.The main contributions include the hardware design,the establishment of global occu-pancy grid maps based on millimeter-wave radars,the trajec-tory planning scheme based on optimal virtual tube methods,and the controller structure based on dynamics.The proposed system focuses on utilizing a compact and lightweight quadro-tor with sensors to achieve navigation that conforms to the direction of urban roads with high computational efficiency and safety.Our work is an application of millimeter-wave radars and virtual tube planning for obstacle avoidance in navigation.The validness and effectiveness of the proposed system are verified by experiments.
文摘Grasping is one of the most fundamental operations in modern robotics applications.While deep rein-forcement learning(DRL)has demonstrated strong potential in robotics,there is too much emphasis on maximizing the cumulative reward in executing tasks,and the potential safety risks are often ignored.In this paper,an optimization method based on safe reinforcement learning(Safe RL)is proposed to address the robotic grasping problem under safety constraints.Specifically,considering the obstacle avoidance constraints of the system,the grasping problem of the manipulator is modeled as a Constrained Markov Decision Process(CMDP).The Lagrange multiplier and a dynamic weighted mechanism are introduced into the Proximal Policy Optimization(PPO)framework,leading to the development of the dynamic weighted Lagrange PPO(DWL-PPO)algorithm.The behavior of violating safety constraints is punished while the policy is optimized in this proposed method.In addition,the orientation control of the end-effector is included in the reward function,and a compound reward function adapted to changes in pose is designed.Ultimately,the efficacy and advantages of the suggested method are proved by extensive training and testing in the Pybullet simulator.The results of grasping experiments reveal that the recommended approach provides superior safety and efficiency compared with other advanced RL methods and achieves a good trade-off between model learning and risk aversion.
基金Cultivation Fund for Innovation Project of Ministry of Education (No.708045)
文摘In order to improve a mobile robot＇s autonomy in unknown environments, a novel intelligent controller is designed. The proposed controller is based on fuzzy logic with the aim of assisting a multi-sensor equipped mobile robot to safely navigate in an indoor environment. First, the designs of two behaviors for a robot＇s autonomous navigation are described, including path tracking and obstacle avoidance, which emulate human driving behaviors and reduce the complexity of the robot＇s navigation problems in unknown environments. Secondly, the two behaviors are combined by using a finite state machine （FSM）, which ensures that the robot can safely track a predefined path in an unknown indoor environment. The inputs to this controller are the readings from the sensors. The corresponding output is the desired direction of the robot. Finally, both the simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
文摘A robot intelligent path planning system RIPPS is developed, which can be utilized for a robot off line programming tool. The system consists of three parts: geometric modeler, kinematic modeler and path planer. The geometric modeler is used to construct the robot working environment cluttered with obstacles and the robot kinematic modeler to define robot manipulators by the input parameters. Giving robot start and the goal configurations, the path planer can produce a quasi optimal path. By transforming obstacles into the C space to form C obstacles, the path searching is performed in C space. The planning simulations are performed on a SGI workstation, the future research is to implement the planer on a commercial robot manipulators.
基金This research has been funded by Scientific Research Deanship at University of Ha’il–Saudi Arabia through Project Number BA-2107.
文摘Optimal path planning avoiding obstacles is among the most attractive applications of mobile robots(MRs)in both research and education.In this paper,an optimal collision-free algorithm is designed and implemented practically based on an improved Dijkstra algorithm.To achieve this research objectives,first,the MR obstacle-free environment is modeled as a diagraph including nodes,edges and weights.Second,Dijkstra algorithm is used offline to generate the shortest path driving the MR from a starting point to a target point.During its movement,the robot should follow the previously obtained path and stop at each node to test if there is an obstacle between the current node and the immediately following node.For this aim,the MR was equipped with an ultrasonic sensor used as obstacle detector.If an obstacle is found,the MR updates its diagraph by excluding the corresponding node.Then,Dijkstra algorithm runs on the modified diagraph.This procedure is repeated until reaching the target point.To verify the efficiency of the proposed approach,a simulation was carried out on a hand-made MR and an environment including 9 nodes,19 edges and 2 obstacles.The obtained optimal path avoiding obstacles has been transferred into motion control and implemented practically using line tracking sensors.This study has shown that the improved Dijkstra algorithm can efficiently solve optimal path planning in environments including obstacles and that STEAM-based MRs are efficient cost-effective tools to practically implement the designed algorithm.
基金the support of the Zhejiang Lab(No.2019NB0AB04)National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61903014)+1 种基金Aeronautical Science Foundation of China(No.20181751010)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China。
文摘In this paper,a bio-inspired path planning algorithm in 3 D space is proposed.The algorithm imitates the basic mechanisms of plant growth,including phototropism,negative geotropism and branching.The algorithm proposed in this paper solves the dynamic obstacle avoidance path planning problem of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)in the case of unknown environment maps.Compared with other path planning algorithms,the algorithm has the advantages of fast path planning speed and fewer route points,and can achieve the effect of low delay real-time path planning.The feasibility of the algorithm is verified in the Gazebo simulator based on the Robot Operating System(ROS)platform.Finally,an actual UAV autonomous obstacle avoidance path planning experimental platform is built,and a UAV obstacle avoidance path planning flight test is carried out based on this actual environment.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61803009)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(No.YWF-19-BJ-J-205)Aeronautical Science Foundation of China(No.20175851032)。
文摘The paper proposes a Virtual Target Guidance(VTG)-based distributed Model Predictive Control(MPC) scheme for formation control of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs).First, a framework of distributed MPC scheme is designed in which each UAV only shares the information with its neighbors, and the obtained local Finite-Horizon Optimal Control Problem(FHOCP) can be solved by swarm intelligent optimization algorithm.Then, a VTG approach is developed and integrated into the distributed MPC scheme to achieve trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance.Further, an event-triggered mechanism is proposed to reduce the computational burden for UAV formation control, which takes into consideration the predictive state errors as well as the convergence of cost function.Numerical simulations show that the proposed VTG-based distributed MPC scheme is more computationally efficient to achieve formation control of multiple UAVs in comparison with the traditional distributed MPC method.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China[grant number 61771350]It was also partially supported by the Open Research Fund of Key Laboratory of Space Utilization,Chinese Academy of Sciences[grant number LSU-SJLY-2017-01]and the Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Tianjin Key Laboratory of Intelligent Information Processing in Remote Sensing[grant number 2016-ZW-KFJJ02].
文摘Research on unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV)has been increasingly popular in the past decades,and UAVs have been widely used in industrial inspection,remote sensing for mapping&surveying,rescuing,and so on.Nevertheless,the limited autonomous navigation capability severely hampers the application of UAVs in complex environments,such as GPS-denied areas.Previously,researchers mainly focused on the use of laser or radar sensors for UAV navigation.With the rapid development of computer vision,vision-based methods,which utilize cheaper and more flexible visual sensors,have shown great advantages in the field of UAV navigation.The purpose of this article is to present a comprehensive literature review of the vision-based methods for UAV navigation.Specifically on visual localization and mapping,obstacle avoidance and path planning,which compose the essential parts of visual navigation.Furthermore,throughout this article,we will have an insight into the prospect of the UAV navigation and the challenges to be faced.
