Assistive trajectories for human-in-the-loop mobile robotic platforms

Autonomous and semi-autonomous smoothly interruptible trajectories are developed which are highly suitable for application in tele-operated mobile robots, operator on-board military mobile ground platforms, and other mobility assistance platforms. These trajectories will allow a navigational system to provide assistance to the operator in the loop, for purpose built robots or remotely operated platforms. This will allow the platform to function well beyond the line-of-sight of the operator, enabling remote operation inside a building, surveillance, or advanced observations whilst keeping the operator in a safe location. In addition, on-board operators can be assisted to navigate without collision when distracted, or under-fire, or when physically disabled by injury

Intelligent Adaptive Motion Control for Ground Wheeled Vehicles

In this paper a new intelligent adaptive control is applied to solve a problem of motion control of ground vehicles with two independent wheels actuated by a differential drive. The major objective of this work is to obtain a motion control system by using a new fuzzy inference mechanism where the Lyapunov’s stability can be assured. In particular the parameters of the kinematical control law are obtained using an intelligent Fuzzy mechanism, where the properties of the Fuzzy maps have been established to have the stability above. Due to the nonlinear map of the intelligent fuzzy inference mechanism (i.e. fuzzy rules and value of the rule), the parameters above are not constant, but, time after time, based on empirical fuzzy rules, they are updated in function of the values of the tracking errors. Since the fuzzy maps are adjusted based on the control performances, the parameters updating assures a robustness and fast convergence of the tracking errors. Also, since the vehicle dynamics and kinematics can be completely unknown, a dynamical and kinematical adaptive control is added. The proposed fuzzy controller has been implemented for a real nonholonomic electrical vehicle. Therefore system robustness and stability performance are verified through simulations and experimental studies

MS

thesisIn this research, a computerized motion planning and control system for multiple robots is presented. Medium scale wheeled mobile robot couriers move wireless antennas within a semicontrolled environment. The systems described in this work are integrated as components within Mobile Emulab, a wireless research testbed. This testbed is publicly available to users remotely via the Internet. Experimenters use a computer interface to specify desired paths and configurations for multiple robots. The robot control and coordination system autonomously creates complex movements and behaviors from high level instructions. Multiple trajectory types may be created by Mobile Emulab. Baseline paths are comprised of line segments connecting waypoints, which require robots to stop and pivot between each segment. Filleted circular arcs between line segments allow constant motion trajectories. To avoid curvature discontinuities inherent in line-arc segmented paths, higher order continuous polynomial spirals and splines are constructed in place of the constant radius arcs. Polar form nonlinear state feedback controllers executing on a computer system connected to the robots over a wireless network accomplish posture stabilization, path following and trajectory tracking control. State feedback is provided by an overhead camera based visual localization system integrated into the testbed. Kinematic control is used to generate velocity commands sent to wheel velocity servo loop controllers built into the robots. Obstacle avoidance in Mobile Emulab is accomplished through visibility graph methods. The Virtualized Phase Portrait Method is presented as an alternative. A virtual velocity field overlay is created from workspace obstacle zone data. Global stability to a single equilibrium point, with local instability in proximity to obstacle regions is designed into this system

Effects of Turning Radius on Skid-Steered Wheeled Robot Power Consumption on Loose Soil

This research highlights the need for a new power model for skid-steered wheeled robots driving on loose soil and lays the groundwork to develop such a model. State-of-the-art power modeling assumes hard ground; under typical assumptions this predicts constant power consumption over a range of small turning radii where the inner wheels are rotating backwards. However, experimental results performed both in the field and in a controlled laboratory sandbox show that, on sand, power is not in fact constant with respect to turning radius. Power peaks by 20% in a newly identified range of turns where the inner wheels rotate backwards but are being dragged forward. This range of turning radii spans from half the rover width to R', the radius at which the inner wheel is not commanded to turn. Data shows higher motor torque and wheel sinkage in this range. To progress toward predicting the required power for a skid-steered wheeled robot to maneuver on loose soil, a preliminary version of a two-dimensional slip-sinkage model is proposed, along with a model of the force required to bulldoze the pile of sand that accumulates next to the wheels as it they are skidding. However, this is shown to be a less important factor contributing to the increased power in small-radius turns than the added inner wheel torque induced by dragging these wheels through the piles of sand they excavate by counter-rotation (in the identified range of turns). Finally, since a direct application of a power model is to design energy-efficient paths, time dependency of power consumption is also examined. Experiments show reduced rover angular velocity in sand around turning radii where the inner wheels are not rotated and this leads to the introduction to a new parameter to consider in path planning: angular slip