Robot Collision Avoidance with a Guaranteed Safety Zone and Randomized Symmetry Breaking

Collision avoidance of moving systems is a wellstudiedproblem. The use of an Artificial Potential Field functionis a popular approach to compute in real time a path that avoidscollision between agents. It involves the minimization of aweighted sum of an attractive force and a repulsive force.Previous studies consider these weights to be fixed designparameters, to be determined experimentally. In particular, theseparameters do not change during the run of the algorithm. Ourmain result is based on the observation that by dynamicallychanging these parameters one can obtain a guarantee on aminimum safety distance between the agents. Specifically, if theagents compute their path by minimizing the potential field withproperly chosen weights, there will always be a guaranteed safetydistance between each pair of agents. Our earlier studies showpromising experimental results and we extended the studies onavoiding trajectory symmetry.Our simulation validates ourmodel and demonstrated its effectiveness for a group of noncooperativeagents moving in a small area

Adaptive Airborne Separation to Enable UAM Autonomy in Mixed Airspace

The excitement and promise generated by Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concepts have inspired both new entrants and large aerospace companies throughout the world to invest hundreds of millions in research and development of air vehicles, both piloted and unpiloted, to fulfill these dreams. The management and separation of all these new aircraft have received much less attention, however, and even though NASAs lead is advancing some promising concepts for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM), most operations today are limited to line of sight with the vehicle, airspace reservation and geofencing of individual flights. Various schemes have been proposed to control this new traffic, some modeled after conventional air traffic control and some proposing fully automatic management, either from a ground-based entity or carried out on board among the vehicles themselves. Previous work has examined vehicle-based traffic management in the very low altitude airspace within a metroplex called UTM airspace in which piloted traffic is rare. A management scheme was proposed in that work that takes advantage of the homogeneous nature of the traffic operating in UTM airspace. This paper expands that concept to include a traffic management plan usable at all altitudes desired for electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing urban and short-distance, inter-city transportation. The interactions with piloted aircraft operating under both visual and instrument flight rules are analyzed, and the role of Air Traffic Control services in the postulated mixed traffic environment is covered. Separation values that adapt to each type of traffic encounter are proposed, and the relationship between required airborne surveillance range and closure speed is given. Finally, realistic scenarios are presented illustrating how this concept can reliably handle the density and traffic mix that fully implemented and successful UAM operations would entail

Smooth and Collision-Free Navigation for Multiple Mobile Robots and Video Game Characters

The navigation of multiple mobile robots or virtual agents through environments containing static and dynamic obstacles to specified goal locations is an important problem in mobile robotics, many video games, and simulated environments. Moreover, technological advances in mobile robot hardware and video games consoles have allowed increasing numbers of mobile robots or virtual agents to navigate shared environments simultaneously. However, coordinating the navigation of large groups of mobile robots or virtual agents remains a difficult task. Kinematic and dynamic constraints and the effects of sensor and actuator uncertainty exaggerate the challenge of navigating multiple physical mobile robots, and video games players demand plausible motion and an ever increasing visual fidelity of virtual agents without sacrificing frame rate. We present new methods for navigating multiple mobile robots or virtual agents through shared environments, each using formulations based on velocity obstacles. These include algorithms that allow navigation through environments in two-dimensional or three-dimensional workspaces containing both static and dynamic obstacles without collisions or oscillations. Each mobile robot or virtual agent senses its surroundings and acts independently, without central coordination or inter-communication with its neighbors, implicitly assuming the neighbors use the same navigation strategy based on the notion of reciprocity. We use the position, velocity, and physical extent of neighboring mobile robots or virtual agents to compute their future trajectories to avoid collisions locally and show that, in principle, it is possible to theoretically guarantee that the motion of each mobile robot or virtual agent is smooth. Moreover, we demonstrate direct, collision-free, and oscillation-free navigation in experiments using physical iRobot Create mobile robots, simulations of multiple differential-drive robots or simple-airplanes, and video games levels containing hundreds of virtual agents.Doctor of Philosoph

Autonomous aircraft initiative study

The results of a consulting effort to aid NASA Ames-Dryden in defining a new initiative in aircraft automation are described. The initiative described is a multi-year, multi-center technology development and flight demonstration program. The initiative features the further development of technologies in aircraft automation already being pursued at multiple NASA centers and Department of Defense (DoD) research and Development (R and D) facilities. The proposed initiative involves the development of technologies in intelligent systems, guidance, control, software development, airborne computing, navigation, communications, sensors, unmanned vehicles, and air traffic control. It involves the integration and implementation of these technologies to the extent necessary to conduct selected and incremental flight demonstrations

High-speed civil transport flight- and propulsion-control technological issues

Technology advances required in the flight and propulsion control system disciplines to develop a high speed civil transport (HSCT) are identified. The mission and requirements of the transport and major flight and propulsion control technology issues are discussed. Each issue is ranked and, for each issue, a plan for technology readiness is given. Certain features are unique and dominate control system design. These features include the high temperature environment, large flexible aircraft, control-configured empennage, minimizing control margins, and high availability and excellent maintainability. The failure to resolve most high-priority issues can prevent the transport from achieving its goals. The flow-time for hardware may require stimulus, since market forces may be insufficient to ensure timely production. Flight and propulsion control technology will contribute to takeoff gross weight reduction. Similar technology advances are necessary also to ensure flight safety for the transport. The certification basis of the HSCT must be negotiated between airplane manufacturers and government regulators. Efficient, quality design of the transport will require an integrated set of design tools that support the entire engineering design team

Design and equipment of VUT 001 marabu unmanned aerial vehicle for operation in non‐segregated airspace

The paper describes the design process and the summary of expected requirements for unmanned aerial vehicle operation in non‐segregated airspace and on‐board equipment of the VUT 001 Marabu airplane for experimental operation as a civil unmanned aerial vehicle (CUAV). The VUT 001 Marabu airplane is being developed at the Institute of Aerospace Engineering of Brno University of Technology as a platform for testing of variety CUAV equipment. The testing of CUAV equipment in real conditions is currently impossible, because there does not exist any regulatory requirement for this particular airplane category. The Institute of Aerospace Engineering proposed UAV‐equipment‐testing methodology based on a piloted version of the future UAV aircraft. The pilot has priority in control during flight, which eliminates potential accidents after system failures. Our goal is to ensure technological progress in this area and to develop technology before applicable regulations are introduced. The demonstration of the potential capabilities of the UAV VUT 001 Marabu can motivate other involved institutions and producers to quicken progress in this field. Santrauka Šiame darbe aprašomas projektavimo procesas ir pateikiama santrauka apie numatomus reikalavimus, skirtus bepiločiu orlaiviu (BO) eksploatavimui nekontroliuojamoje oro erdveje bei VUT 001 Marabu orlaivio borto aparatūros, pritaikytos civiliniam bepiločiam orlaiviui, eksperimentiniam panaudojimui. VUT 001 Marabu orlaivis yra tobulinamas Brno technologijos universiteto Aeronautikos inžinerijos institute (Čekijos Respublika) kaip testavimo platforma, skirta ivairios CBO aparatūros tobulinimui. Tačiau šiuo metu CBO aparatūros testavimas realiomis salygomis yra neimanomas, kadangi vis dar nera šiai orlaiviu kategorijai pritaikytu kontroles reikalavimu. Aeronautikos inžinerijos institutas yra pasiūles BO testavimo aparatūros metodologija, pritaikyta būsimo BO pilotuojamai versijai. Sugedus sistemai, pilotas turi pirmenybe skrydžio valdymui, o tai sumažina galimo incidento tikimybe. Tyrimo tikslas yra užtikrinti šios srities technologiju progresa ir pletojima, kol dar nera ivestos atitinkamos nuostatos. Bepiločio orlaivio VUT 001 Marabu galimu pajegumu pristatymas gali motyvuoti institucijas ir gamintojus pagreitinti progresa šioje srityje. First Published Online: 14 Oct 2010 Reikšminiai žodžiai: projektavimas, bepilotis orlaivis, nekontroliuojama oro erdv

Study of Cooperative Control System for Multiple Mobile Robots Using Particle Swarm Optimization

The idea of using multiple mobile robots for tracking targets in an unknown environment can be realized with Particle Swarm Optimization proposed by Kennedy and Eberhart in 1995. The actual implementation of an efficient algorithm like Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is required when robots need to avoid the randomly placed obstacles in unknown environment and reach the target point. However, ordinary methods of obstacle avoidance have not proven good results in route planning. PSO is a self-adaptive population-based method in which behavior of the swarm is iteratively generated from the combination of social and cognitive behaviors and is an effective technique for collective robotic search problem. When PSO is used for exploration, this algorithm enables robots to travel on trajectories that lead to total swarm convergence on some target

General Aviation Task Force report

General aviation is officially defined as all aviation except scheduled airlines and the military. It is the only air transportation to many communities throughout the world. In order to reverse the recent decline in general aviation aircraft produced in the United States, the Task Force recommends that NASA provide the expertise and facilities such as wind tunnels and computer codes for aircraft design. General aviation manufacturers are receptive to NASA's innovations and technological leadership and are expected to be effective users of NASA-generated technologies