A Real-Time 3D Path Planning Solution for Collision-Free Navigation of Multirotor Aerial Robots in Dynamic Environments

Deliberative capabilities are essential for intelligent aerial robotic applications in modern life such as package delivery and surveillance. This paper presents a real-time 3D path planning solution for multirotor aerial robots to obtain a feasible, optimal and collision-free path in complex dynamic environments. High-level geometric primitives are employed to compactly represent the situation, which includes self-situation of the robot and situation of the obstacles in the environment. A probabilistic graph is utilized to sample the admissible space without taking into account the existing obstacles. Whenever a planning query is received, the generated probabilistic graph is then explored by an A$^{\star}$ discrete search algorithm with an artificial field map as cost function in order to obtain a raw optimal collision-free path, which is subsequently shortened. Realistic simulations in V-REP simulator have been created to validate the proposed path planning solution, integrating it into a fully autonomous multirotor aerial robotic system

3D local planning for a forestry UGV based on terrain gradient and mechanical effort

Planning feasible paths in 3D environments is a challenging problem, mainly in forestry environments due to, for instance, the rough and slippery terrain or the challenges for perception, as those caused by the high amount of trees, wind, and general unstructured nature of the environment. This paper presents a work in progress to propose an innovative method for 3D local planning in outdoor environments, to facilitate autonomous navigation of a forestry Unmanned Ground Vehicle. The proposed method builds on the ROS navigation stack integrating a module that analyses the gradient of the terrain to quantify slopes on the robot’s path, and taking into consideration its mechanical effort when planning paths to traverse

Adaptive Synergetic Controller for Stabilizing the Altitude and Angle of Mini Helicopter

This research proposes ASC (Adaptive Synergetic Controller) for the nonlinear model of MH (Mini Helicopter) to stabilize the desired altitude and angle. The model of MH is highly nonlinear, underactuated and multivariable in nature due to its dynamic uncertainties and restrictions of velocities during the flight. ASC can force the tracking errors of the system states converges to zero in a finite interval of time. The MH system requires smooth controller and fast precise transition response from initial state till the desired state, therefore the parametric calculations and simulations can be done by the proposed ASC algorithm. It is validated that the above simulated results of the proposed controller have a better convergence rate and smoother stability response in order to track the desired altitude and angle when compared with SMC (Sliding Mode Controller). Moreover, it does not need any linearization, transformation and variations in the system model

Computational Imaging and Artificial Intelligence: The Next Revolution of Mobile Vision

Signal capture stands in the forefront to perceive and understand the environment and thus imaging plays the pivotal role in mobile vision. Recent explosive progresses in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have shown great potential to develop advanced mobile platforms with new imaging devices. Traditional imaging systems based on the "capturing images first and processing afterwards" mechanism cannot meet this unprecedented demand. Differently, Computational Imaging (CI) systems are designed to capture high-dimensional data in an encoded manner to provide more information for mobile vision systems.Thanks to AI, CI can now be used in real systems by integrating deep learning algorithms into the mobile vision platform to achieve the closed loop of intelligent acquisition, processing and decision making, thus leading to the next revolution of mobile vision.Starting from the history of mobile vision using digital cameras, this work first introduces the advances of CI in diverse applications and then conducts a comprehensive review of current research topics combining CI and AI. Motivated by the fact that most existing studies only loosely connect CI and AI (usually using AI to improve the performance of CI and only limited works have deeply connected them), in this work, we propose a framework to deeply integrate CI and AI by using the example of self-driving vehicles with high-speed communication, edge computing and traffic planning. Finally, we outlook the future of CI plus AI by investigating new materials, brain science and new computing techniques to shed light on new directions of mobile vision systems