4,508 research outputs found
Model-based estimation of off-highway road geometry using single-axis LADAR and inertial sensing
This paper applies some previously studied extended
Kalman filter techniques for planar road geometry estimation
to the domain of autonomous navigation of off-highway
vehicles. In this work, a clothoid model of the road geometry is
constructed and estimated recursively based on road features
extracted from single-axis LADAR range measurements. We
present a method for feature extraction of the road centerline
in the image plane, and describe its application to recursive
estimation of the road geometry. We analyze the performance of
our method against simulated motion of varied road geometries
and against closed-loop detection, tracking and following of
desert roads. Our method accomodates full 6 DOF motion of
the vehicle as it navigates, constructs consistent estimates of the
road geometry with respect to a fixed global reference frame,
and requires an estimate of the sensor pose for each range
measurement
Cooperative localization by dual foot-mounted inertial sensors and inter-agent ranging
The implementation challenges of cooperative localization by dual
foot-mounted inertial sensors and inter-agent ranging are discussed and work on
the subject is reviewed. System architecture and sensor fusion are identified
as key challenges. A partially decentralized system architecture based on
step-wise inertial navigation and step-wise dead reckoning is presented. This
architecture is argued to reduce the computational cost and required
communication bandwidth by around two orders of magnitude while only giving
negligible information loss in comparison with a naive centralized
implementation. This makes a joint global state estimation feasible for up to a
platoon-sized group of agents. Furthermore, robust and low-cost sensor fusion
for the considered setup, based on state space transformation and
marginalization, is presented. The transformation and marginalization are used
to give the necessary flexibility for presented sampling based updates for the
inter-agent ranging and ranging free fusion of the two feet of an individual
agent. Finally, characteristics of the suggested implementation are
demonstrated with simulations and a real-time system implementation.Comment: 14 page
Extended Object Tracking: Introduction, Overview and Applications
This article provides an elaborate overview of current research in extended
object tracking. We provide a clear definition of the extended object tracking
problem and discuss its delimitation to other types of object tracking. Next,
different aspects of extended object modelling are extensively discussed.
Subsequently, we give a tutorial introduction to two basic and well used
extended object tracking approaches - the random matrix approach and the Kalman
filter-based approach for star-convex shapes. The next part treats the tracking
of multiple extended objects and elaborates how the large number of feasible
association hypotheses can be tackled using both Random Finite Set (RFS) and
Non-RFS multi-object trackers. The article concludes with a summary of current
applications, where four example applications involving camera, X-band radar,
light detection and ranging (lidar), red-green-blue-depth (RGB-D) sensors are
highlighted.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figure
Robust Legged Robot State Estimation Using Factor Graph Optimization
Legged robots, specifically quadrupeds, are becoming increasingly attractive
for industrial applications such as inspection. However, to leave the
laboratory and to become useful to an end user requires reliability in harsh
conditions. From the perspective of state estimation, it is essential to be
able to accurately estimate the robot's state despite challenges such as uneven
or slippery terrain, textureless and reflective scenes, as well as dynamic
camera occlusions. We are motivated to reduce the dependency on foot contact
classifications, which fail when slipping, and to reduce position drift during
dynamic motions such as trotting. To this end, we present a factor graph
optimization method for state estimation which tightly fuses and smooths
inertial navigation, leg odometry and visual odometry. The effectiveness of the
approach is demonstrated using the ANYmal quadruped robot navigating in a
realistic outdoor industrial environment. This experiment included trotting,
walking, crossing obstacles and ascending a staircase. The proposed approach
decreased the relative position error by up to 55% and absolute position error
by 76% compared to kinematic-inertial odometry.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures. Accepted to RA-L + IROS 2019, July 201
A tripartite filter design for seamless pedestrian navigation using recursive 2-means clustering and Tukey update
Mobile devices are desired to guide users seamlessly to diverse destinations indoors and outdoors. The positioning fixing subsystems often provide poor quality measurements with gaps in an urban environment. No single position fixing technology works continuously. Many sensor fusion variations have been previously trialed to overcome this challenge, including the particle filter that is robust and the Kalman filter which is fast. However, a lack exists, of context aware, seamless systems that are able to use the most fit sensors and methods in the correct context. A novel adaptive and modular tripartite navigation filter design is presented to enable seamless navigation. It consists of a sensor subsystem, a context inference and a navigation filter blocks. A foot-mounted inertial measurement unit (IMU), a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Ultrawideband (UWB) positioning systems were used in the evaluation implementation of this design. A novel recursive 2-means clustering method was developed to track multiple hypotheses when there are gaps in position fixes. The closest hypothesis to a new position fix is selected when the gap ends. Moreover, when the position fix quality measure is not reliable, a fusion approach using a Tukey-style particle filter measurement update is introduced. Results show the successful operation of the design implementation. The Tukey update improves accuracy by 5% and together with the clustering method the system robustness is enhanced
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