18,645 research outputs found
Technical Report: Cooperative Multi-Target Localization With Noisy Sensors
This technical report is an extended version of the paper 'Cooperative
Multi-Target Localization With Noisy Sensors' accepted to the 2013 IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
This paper addresses the task of searching for an unknown number of static
targets within a known obstacle map using a team of mobile robots equipped with
noisy, limited field-of-view sensors. Such sensors may fail to detect a subset
of the visible targets or return false positive detections. These measurement
sets are used to localize the targets using the Probability Hypothesis Density,
or PHD, filter. Robots communicate with each other on a local peer-to-peer
basis and with a server or the cloud via access points, exchanging measurements
and poses to update their belief about the targets and plan future actions. The
server provides a mechanism to collect and synthesize information from all
robots and to share the global, albeit time-delayed, belief state to robots
near access points. We design a decentralized control scheme that exploits this
communication architecture and the PHD representation of the belief state.
Specifically, robots move to maximize mutual information between the target set
and measurements, both self-collected and those available by accessing the
server, balancing local exploration with sharing knowledge across the team.
Furthermore, robots coordinate their actions with other robots exploring the
same local region of the environment.Comment: Extended version of paper accepted to 2013 IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA
Radar-based Feature Design and Multiclass Classification for Road User Recognition
The classification of individual traffic participants is a complex task,
especially for challenging scenarios with multiple road users or under bad
weather conditions. Radar sensors provide an - with respect to well established
camera systems - orthogonal way of measuring such scenes. In order to gain
accurate classification results, 50 different features are extracted from the
measurement data and tested on their performance. From these features a
suitable subset is chosen and passed to random forest and long short-term
memory (LSTM) classifiers to obtain class predictions for the radar input.
Moreover, it is shown why data imbalance is an inherent problem in automotive
radar classification when the dataset is not sufficiently large. To overcome
this issue, classifier binarization is used among other techniques in order to
better account for underrepresented classes. A new method to couple the
resulting probabilities is proposed and compared to others with great success.
Final results show substantial improvements when compared to ordinary
multiclass classificationComment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Resource-Constrained Adaptive Search and Tracking for Sparse Dynamic Targets
This paper considers the problem of resource-constrained and noise-limited
localization and estimation of dynamic targets that are sparsely distributed
over a large area. We generalize an existing framework [Bashan et al, 2008] for
adaptive allocation of sensing resources to the dynamic case, accounting for
time-varying target behavior such as transitions to neighboring cells and
varying amplitudes over a potentially long time horizon. The proposed adaptive
sensing policy is driven by minimization of a modified version of the
previously introduced ARAP objective function, which is a surrogate function
for mean squared error within locations containing targets. We provide
theoretical upper bounds on the performance of adaptive sensing policies by
analyzing solutions with oracle knowledge of target locations, gaining insight
into the effect of target motion and amplitude variation as well as sparsity.
Exact minimization of the multi-stage objective function is infeasible, but
myopic optimization yields a closed-form solution. We propose a simple
non-myopic extension, the Dynamic Adaptive Resource Allocation Policy (D-ARAP),
that allocates a fraction of resources for exploring all locations rather than
solely exploiting the current belief state. Our numerical studies indicate that
D-ARAP has the following advantages: (a) it is more robust than the myopic
policy to noise, missing data, and model mismatch; (b) it performs comparably
to well-known approximate dynamic programming solutions but at significantly
lower computational complexity; and (c) it improves greatly upon non-adaptive
uniform resource allocation in terms of estimation error and probability of
detection.Comment: 49 pages, 1 table, 11 figure
Scalable Approach to Uncertainty Quantification and Robust Design of Interconnected Dynamical Systems
Development of robust dynamical systems and networks such as autonomous
aircraft systems capable of accomplishing complex missions faces challenges due
to the dynamically evolving uncertainties coming from model uncertainties,
necessity to operate in a hostile cluttered urban environment, and the
distributed and dynamic nature of the communication and computation resources.
Model-based robust design is difficult because of the complexity of the hybrid
dynamic models including continuous vehicle dynamics, the discrete models of
computations and communications, and the size of the problem. We will overview
recent advances in methodology and tools to model, analyze, and design robust
autonomous aerospace systems operating in uncertain environment, with stress on
efficient uncertainty quantification and robust design using the case studies
of the mission including model-based target tracking and search, and trajectory
planning in uncertain urban environment. To show that the methodology is
generally applicable to uncertain dynamical systems, we will also show examples
of application of the new methods to efficient uncertainty quantification of
energy usage in buildings, and stability assessment of interconnected power
networks
Detecting gravitational waves from highly eccentric compact binaries
In dense stellar regions, highly eccentric binaries of black holes and
neutron stars can form through various n-body interactions. Such a binary could
emit a significant fraction of its binding energy in a sequence of largely
isolated gravitational wave bursts prior to merger. Given expected black hole
and neutron star masses, many such systems will emit these repeated bursts at
frequencies within the sensitive band of contemporary ground-based
gravitational wave detectors. Unfortunately, existing gravitational wave
searches are ill-suited to detect these signals. In this work, we adapt a
"power stacking" method to the detection of gravitational wave signals from
highly eccentric binaries. We implement this method as an extension of the
Q-transform, a projection onto a multiresolution basis of windowed complex
exponentials that has previously been used to analyze data from the network of
LIGO/Virgo detectors. Our method searches for excess power over an ensemble of
time-frequency tiles. We characterize the performance of our method using Monte
Carlo experiments with signals injected in simulated detector noise. Our
results indicate that the power stacking method achieves substantially better
sensitivity to eccentric binary signals than existing localized burst searches.Comment: 17 pages, 20 figure
Contextual information aided target tracking and path planning for autonomous ground vehicles
Recently, autonomous vehicles have received worldwide attentions from academic research, automotive industry and the general public. In order to achieve a higher level of automation, one of the most fundamental requirements of autonomous vehicles is the capability to respond to internal and external changes in a safe, timely and appropriate manner. Situational awareness and decision making are two crucial enabling technologies for safe operation of autonomous vehicles.
This thesis presents a solution for improving the automation level of autonomous vehicles in both situational awareness and decision making aspects by utilising additional domain knowledge such as constraints and influence on a moving object caused by environment and interaction between different moving objects. This includes two specific sub-systems, model based target tracking in environmental perception module and motion planning in path planning module.
In the first part, a rigorous Bayesian framework is developed for pooling road constraint information and sensor measurement data of a ground vehicle to provide better situational awareness. Consequently, a new multiple targets tracking (MTT) strategy is proposed for solving target tracking problems with nonlinear dynamic systems and additional state constraints. Besides road constraint information, a vehicle movement is generally affected by its surrounding environment known as interaction information. A novel dynamic modelling approach is then proposed by considering the interaction information as virtual force which is constructed by involving the target state, desired dynamics and interaction information. The proposed modelling approach is then accommodated in the proposed MTT strategy for incorporating different types of domain knowledge in a comprehensive manner.
In the second part, a new path planning strategy for autonomous vehicles operating in partially known dynamic environment is suggested. The proposed MTT technique is utilized to provide accurate on-board tracking information with associated level of uncertainty. Based on the tracking information, a path planning strategy is developed to generate collision free paths by not only predicting the future states of the moving objects but also taking into account the propagation of the associated estimation uncertainty within a given horizon. To cope with a dynamic and uncertain road environment, the strategy is implemented in a receding horizon fashion
Decision Factors for Cooperative Multiple Warhead UAV Target Classification and Attack with Control Applications
Autonomous wide area search, classification and attack using Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) is considered. The wide area search and attack scenario is modeled, capturing important problem parameters related to environment, seeker, and munitions. Probabilistic analysis is used to formulate and analytically solve for various probabilities, including the probability of mission success. Two methods are utilized. The first examines the sub-events required for various events to occur. The second utilizes a Markov chain approach. General expressions are first obtained that are applicable to any assumed a priori distributions of targets and false targets. These expressions are subsequently applied to a multiple warhead munition/UCAV operating in several multiple target/multiple false target scenarios. Examples of application of the analytically derived results are given for all facets of the system design and operation of Wide Area Search Munitions including the evaluation of cooperation schemes and rules of engagement. The problem is formulated as a control problem, and the possibility of adaptive control based on estimation of environmental parameters is examined
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