SLAM in Dynamic Environments: A Deep Learning Approach for Moving Object Tracking Using ML-RANSAC Algorithm

The important problem of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) in dynamic environments is less studied than the counterpart problem in static settings. In this paper, we present a solution for the feature-based SLAM problem in dynamic environments. We propose an algorithm that integrates SLAM with multi-target tracking (SLAMMTT) using a robust feature-tracking algorithm for dynamic environments. A novel implementation of RANdomSAmple Consensus (RANSAC) method referred to as multilevel-RANSAC (ML-RANSAC) within the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) framework is applied for multi-target tracking (MTT). We also apply machine learning to detect features from the input data and to distinguish moving from stationary objects. The data stream from LIDAR and vision sensors are fused in real-time to detect objects and depth information. A practical experiment is designed to verify the performance of the algorithm in a dynamic environment. The unique feature of this algorithm is its ability to maintain tracking of features even when the observations are intermittent whereby many reported algorithms fail in such situations. Experimental validation indicates that the algorithm is able to perform consistent estimates in a fast and robust manner suggesting its feasibility for real-time applications

Airborne chemical sensing with mobile robots

Airborne chemical sensing with mobile robots has been an active research areasince the beginning of the 1990s. This article presents a review of research work in this field,including gas distribution mapping, trail guidance, and the different subtasks of gas sourcelocalisation. Due to the difficulty of modelling gas distribution in a real world environmentwith currently available simulation techniques, we focus largely on experimental work and donot consider publications that are purely based on simulations

Concurrent Active Learning in Autonomous Airborne Source Search: Dual Control for Exploration and Exploitation

In this paper, a concurrent learning framework is developed for source search in an unknown environment using autonomous platforms equipped with onboard sensors. Distinct from the existing solutions that require significant computational power for Bayesian estimation and path planning, the proposed solution is computationally affordable for onboard processors. A new concept of concurrent learning using multiple parallel estimators is proposed to learn the operational environment and quantify estimation uncertainty. The search agent is empowered with dual capability of exploiting current estimated parameters to track the source and probing the environment to reduce the impacts of uncertainty, namely Concurrent Learning based Dual Control for Exploration and Exploitation (CL-DCEE). In this setting, the control action not only minimises the tracking error between future agent's position and estimated source location, but also the uncertainty of predicted estimation. More importantly, the rigorous proven properties such as the convergence of CL-DCEE algorithm are established under mild assumptions on noises, and the impact of noises on the search performance is examined. Simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed CL-DCEE algorithm. Compared with the information-theoretic approach, CL-DCEE not only guarantees convergence, but produces better search performance and consumes much less computational time

Dual Control for Exploitation and Exploration (DCEE) in Autonomous Search

This paper proposes an optimal autonomous search framework, namely Dual Control for Exploration and Exploitation (DCEE), for a target at unknown location in an unknown environment. Source localisation is to find sources of atmospheric hazardous material release in a partially unknown environment. This paper proposes a control theoretic approach to this autonomous search problem. To cope with an unknown target location, at each step, the target location is estimated by Bayesian inference. Then a control action is taken to minimise the error between future robot position and the hypothesised future estimation of the target location. The latter is generated by hypothesised measurements at the corresponding future robot positions (due to the control action) with the current estimation of the target location as a prior. It shows that this approach can take into account both the error between the next robot position and the estimate of the target location, and the uncertainty of the estimate. This approach is further extended to the case with not only an unknown source location, but also an unknown local environment (e.g. wind speed and direction). Different from current information theoretic approaches, this new control theoretic approach achieves the optimal trade-off between exploitation and exploration in a unknown environment with an unknown target by driving the robot moving towards estimated target location while reducing its estimation uncertainty. This scheme is implemented using particle filtering on a mobile robot. Simulation and experimental studies demonstrate promising performance of the proposed approach. The relationships between the proposed approach, informative path planning, dual control, and classic model predictive control are discussed and compared

Robotic Olfactory-Based Navigation with Mobile Robots

Robotic odor source localization (OSL) is a technology that enables mobile robots or autonomous vehicles to find an odor source in unknown environments. It has been viewed as challenging due to the turbulent nature of airflows and the resulting odor plume characteristics. The key to correctly finding an odor source is designing an effective olfactory-based navigation algorithm, which guides the robot to detect emitted odor plumes as cues in finding the source. This dissertation proposes three kinds of olfactory-based navigation methods to improve search efficiency while maintaining a low computational cost, incorporating different machine learning and artificial intelligence methods. A. Adaptive Bio-inspired Navigation via Fuzzy Inference Systems. In nature, animals use olfaction to perform many life-essential activities, such as homing, foraging, mate-seeking, and evading predators. Inspired by the mate-seeking behaviors of male moths, this method presents a behavior-based navigation algorithm for using on a mobile robot to locate an odor source. Unlike traditional bio-inspired methods, which use fixed parameters to formulate robot search trajectories, a fuzzy inference system is designed to perceive the environment and adjust trajectory parameters based on the current search situation. The robot can automatically adapt the scale of search trajectories to fit environmental changes and balance the exploration and exploitation of the search. B. Olfactory-based Navigation via Model-based Reinforcement Learning Methods. This method analogizes the odor source localization as a reinforcement learning problem. During the odor plume tracing process, the belief state in a partially observable Markov decision process model is adapted to generate a source probability map that estimates possible odor source locations. A hidden Markov model is employed to produce a plume distribution map that premises plume propagation areas. Both source and plume estimates are fed to the robot. A decision-making model based on a fuzzy inference system is designed to dynamically fuse information from two maps and balance the exploitation and exploration of the search. After assigning the fused information to reward functions, a value iteration-based path planning algorithm solves the optimal action policy. C. Robotic Odor Source Localization via Deep Learning-based Methods. This method investigates the viability of implementing deep learning algorithms to solve the odor source localization problem. The primary objective is to obtain a deep learning model that guides a mobile robot to find an odor source without explicating search strategies. To achieve this goal, two kinds of deep learning models, including adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and deep neural networks (DNNs), are employed to generate the olfactory-based navigation strategies. Multiple training data sets are acquired by applying two traditional methods in both simulation and on-vehicle tests to train deep learning models. After the supervised training, the deep learning models are verified with unseen search situations in simulation and real-world environments. All proposed algorithms are implemented in simulation and on-vehicle tests to verify their effectiveness. Compared to traditional methods, experiment results show that the proposed algorithms outperform them in terms of the success rate and average search time. Finally, the future research directions are presented at the end of the dissertation