Attainable-Set Model Predictive Control for AUV Formation Control

In this article, we focus on the motion control of an AUV formation in order to track a given path along which data will be gathered. A computationally efficient architecture enables the conciliation of onboard resources optimization with state feedback control - to deal with the typical a priori high uncertainty - while managing the formation with a low computational and power budgets. To meet these very strict requirements, a novel Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme is used. The key idea is to pre-compute data which is known to be time invariant for a number of likely scenarios and store it on-board in appropriate look-up tables. Then, as the mission proceeds, sampled motion sensor data, and communicated data is processed in each one of the AUVs and fed to the onboard proposed MPC scheme implemented with the dynamics of the formation that, by combining with information extracted from the pertinent on-board look-up tables, determine the best control action with inexpensive computational operations

A connected autonomous vehicle testbed: Capabilities, experimental processes and lessons learned

VENTURER was one of the first three UK government funded research and innovation projects on Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) and was conducted predominantly in the South West region of the country. A series of increasingly complex scenarios conducted in an urban setting were used to: (i) evaluate the technology created as a part of the project; (ii) systematically assess participant responses to CAVs and; (iii) inform the development of potential insurance models and legal frameworks. Developing this understanding contributed key steps towards facilitating the deployment of CAVs on UK roads. This paper aims to describe the VENTURER Project trials, their objectives and detail some of the key technologies used. Importantly we aim to introduce some informative challenges that were overcame and the subsequent project and technological lessons learned in a hope to help others plan and execute future CAV research. The project successfully integrated several technologies crucial to CAV development. These included, a Decision Making System using behaviour trees to make high level decisions; A pilot-control system to smoothly and comfortably turn plans into throttle and steering actuation; Sensing and perception systems to make sense of raw sensor data; Inter-CAV Wireless communication capable of demonstrating vehicle-to-vehicle communication of potential hazards. The closely coupled technology integration, testing and participant-focused trial schedule led to a greatly improved understanding of the engineering and societal barriers that CAV development faces. From a behavioural standpoint the importance of reliability and repeatability far outweighs a need for novel trajectories, while the sensor-to-perception capabilities are critical, the process of verification and validation is extremely time consuming. Additionally, the added capabilities that can be leveraged from inter-CAV communications shows the potential for improved road safety that could result. Importantly, to effectively conduct human factors experiments in the CAV sector under consistent and repeatable conditions, one needs to define a scripted and stable set of scenarios that uses reliable equipment and a controllable environmental setting. This requirement can often be at odds with making significant technology developments, and if both are part of a project’s goals then they may need to be separated from each other

A minimal sensing and communication control strategy for adaptive platooning

Several cooperative driving strategies proposed in literature, sometimes known as cooperative adaptive cruise control strategies, assume that both relative spacing and relative velocity with preceding vehicle are available from on-board sensors (laser or radar). Alternatively, these strategies assume communication of both velocity states and acceleration inputs from preceding vehicle. However, in practice, on-board sensors can only measure relative spacing with preceding vehicle (since getting relative velocity requires additional filtering algorithms); also, reducing the number of variables communicated from preceding vehicle is crucial to save bandwidth. In this work we show that, after framing the cooperative driving task as a distributed model reference adaptive control problem, the platooning task can be achieved in a minimal sensing and communication scenario, that is, by removing relative velocity measurements with preceding vehicle and by removing communication from preceding vehicle of velocity states. In the framework we propose, vehicle parametric uncertainty is taken into account by appropriately designed adaptive laws. The proposed framework is illustrated and shown to be flexible to several standard architectures used in cooperative driving (one-vehicle look-ahead topology, leader-to-all topology, multivehicle look-ahead topology)

A game theoretical randomized method for large-scale systems partitioning

© 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.In this paper, a game theory-based partitioning algorithm for large-scale systems (LSS) is proposed. More specifically, a game over nodes is introduced in a model predictive control framework. The Shapley value of this game is used to rank the communication links of the control network based on their impact on the overall system performance. A randomized method to estimate the Shapley value of each node and also an efficient redistribution of the resulting value to the links involved are considered to relieve the combinatorial explosion issues related to LSS. Once the partitioning solution is obtained, a sensitivity analysis is proposed to give a measure of its performance. Likewise, a greedy fine tuning procedure is considered to increase the optimality of the partitioning results. The full Barcelona drinking water network (DWN) is analyzed as a real LSS case study showing the effectiveness of the proposed approach in comparison with other partitioning schemes available in the literature.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft