Two-wheeled mobile robot motion control in dynamic environments

In this paper, a feedback control scheme of a two-wheeled mobile robot is explored in dynamic environments. In the existence of local minima, the design of controller is based on Lyapunov function candidate and considers virtual forces information including detouring force. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Continual planning and acting in dynamic multiagent environments

In order to behave intelligently, artificial agents must be able to deliberatively plan their future actions. Unfortunately, realistic agent environments are usually highly dynamic and only partially observable, which makes planning computationally hard. For most practical purposes this rules out planning techniques that account for all possible contingencies in the planning process. However, many agent environments permit an alternative approach, namely continual planning, i.e. the interleaving of planning with acting and sensing. This paper presents a new principled approach to continual planning that describes why and when an agent should switch between planning and acting. The resulting continual planning algorithm enables agents to deliberately postpone parts of their planning process and instead actively gather missing information that is relevant for the later refinement of the plan. To this end, the algorithm explictly reasons about the knowledge (or lack thereof) of an agent and its sensory capabilities. These concepts are modelled in the planning language (MAPL). Since in many environments the major reason for dynamism is the behaviour of other agents, MAPL can also model multiagent environments, common knowledge among agents, and communicative actions between them. For Continual Planning, MAPL introduces the concept of of assertions, abstract actions that substitute yet unformed subplans. To evaluate our continual planning approach empirically we have developed MAPSIM, a simulation environment that automatically builds multiagent simulations from formal MAPL domains. Thus, agents can not only plan, but also execute their plans, perceive their environment, and interact with each other. Our experiments show that, using continual planning techniques, deliberate action planning can be used efficiently even in complex multiagent environments.     

A model of reaction for planning in dynamic environments

One shortcoming with most AI planning systems has been an inability to deal with execution-time discrepancies between actual and expected situations. Often, these exception situations jeopardize the immediate integrity and safety of the planning agent or its surroundings, with the only recourse being more time-consuming plan generation. In order to avoid such situations, potential exceptions must be predicted during plan execution. Since many application domains (particularly for autonomous systems) are inherently dynamic — in the sense that information is at best incomplete, perhaps erroneous, and changes over time independent of a planning agent's actions — managing action in the world becomes a difficult problem. Action and events in dynamic worlds must be monitored in order to coordinate an agent's actions with its surroundings. This allows the agent to predict and plan for potential future exception situations while acting in the present.This paper introduces an approach to autonomous reaction in dynamic environments. We have avoided the traditional distinction between generating and then executing plans through the use of a dynamic reaction system, which handles potential exception situations gracefully as it carries out assigned tasks. The reaction system manages constraints imposed by ongoing activity in the world, as well as those derived from long-term planning, to control observable behaviour. This approach provides the necessary stimulus/response behaviour required in dynamic situations, while using goal-directed constraints as heuristics for improved reactions.We present an overview of the salient features of dynamic worlds and their impact on traditional planning, introduce our model of dynamic reactivity, describe an implementation of the model and its performance in a dynamic simulation environment, and present an architecture incorporating long-term planning with short-term reactance suitable for autonomous systems applications.     

Temporal logic motion planning for dynamic robots

In this paper, we address the temporal logic motion planning problem for mobile robots that are modeled by second order dynamics. Temporal logic specifications can capture the usual control specifications such as reachability and invariance as well as more complex specifications like sequencing and obstacle avoidance. Our approach consists of three basic steps. First, we design a control law that enables the dynamic model to track a simpler kinematic model with a globally bounded error. Second, we built a robust temporal logic specification that takes into account the tracking errors of the first step. Finally, we solve the new robust temporal logic path planning problem for the kinematic model using automata theory and simple local vector fields. The resulting continuous time trajectory is provably guaranteed to satisfy the initial user specification.     

Discrete abstractions for robot motion planning and control in polygonal environments

In this paper, we present a computational framework for automatic generation of provably correct control laws for planar robots in polygonal environments. Using polygon triangulation and discrete abstractions, we map continuous motion planning and control problems, specified in terms of triangles, to computationally inexpensive problems on finite-state-transition systems. In this framework, discrete planning algorithms in complex environments can be seamlessly linked to automatic generation of feedback control laws for robots with underactuation constraints and control bounds. We focus on fully actuated kinematic robots with velocity bounds and (underactuated) unicycles with forward and turning speed bounds.     

Path planning directed motion control of virtual humans in complex environments

Natural motion synthesis of virtual humans have been studied extensively, however, motion control of virtual characters actively responding to complex dynamic environments is still a challenging task in computer animation. It is a labor and cost intensive animator-driven work to create realistic human motions of character animations in a dynamically varying environment in movies, television and video games. To solve this problem, in this paper we propose a novel approach of motion synthesis that applies the optimal path planning to direct motion synthesis for generating realistic character motions in response to complex dynamic environment. In our framework, SIPP (Safe Interval Path Planning) search is implemented to plan a globally optimal path in complex dynamic environments. Three types of control anchors to motion synthesis are for the first time defined and extracted on the obtained planning path, including turning anchors, height anchors and time anchors. Directed by these control anchors, highly interactive motions of virtual character are synthesized by motion field which produces a wide variety of natural motions and has high control agility to handle complex dynamic environments. Experimental results have proven that our framework is capable of synthesizing motions of virtual humans naturally adapted to the complex dynamic environments which guarantee both the optimal path and the realistic motion simultaneously.     

Modeling dynamic scenarios for local sensor-based motion planning

This paper addresses the modeling of the static and dynamic parts of the scenario and how to use this information with a sensor-based motion planning system. The contribution in the modeling aspect is a formulation of the detection and tracking of mobile objects and the mapping of the static structure in such a way that the nature (static/dynamic) of the observations is included in the estimation process. The algorithm provides a set of filters tracking the moving objects and a local map of the static structure constructed on line. In addition, this paper discusses how this modeling module is integrated in a real sensor-based motion planning system taking advantage selectively of the dynamic and static information. The experimental results confirm that the complete navigation system is able to move a vehicle in unknown and dynamic scenarios. Furthermore, the system overcomes many of the limitations of previous systems associated to the ability to distinguish the nature of the parts of the scenario.

Probabilistically safe motion planning to avoid dynamic obstacles with uncertain motion patterns

This paper presents a real-time path planning algorithm that guarantees probabilistic feasibility for autonomous robots with uncertain dynamics operating amidst one or more dynamic obstacles with uncertain motion patterns. Planning safe trajectories under such conditions requires both accurate prediction and proper integration of future obstacle behavior within the planner. Given that available observation data is limited, the motion model must provide generalizable predictions that satisfy dynamic and environmental constraints, a limitation of existing approaches. This work presents a novel solution, named RR-GP, which builds a learned motion pattern model by combining the flexibility of Gaussian processes (GP) with the efficiency of RRT-Reach, a sampling-based reachability computation. Obstacle trajectory GP predictions are conditioned on dynamically feasible paths identified from the reachability analysis, yielding more accurate predictions of future behavior. RR-GP predictions are integrated with a robust path planner, using chance-constrained RRT, to identify probabilistically feasible paths. Theoretical guarantees of probabilistic feasibility are shown for linear systems under Gaussian uncertainty; approximations for nonlinear dynamics and/or non-Gaussian uncertainty are also presented. Simulations demonstrate that, with this planner, an autonomous vehicle can safely navigate a complex environment in real-time while significantly reducing the risk of collisions with dynamic obstacles.     

动态未知环境下一种新的机器人路径规划方法

针对机器人动态路径规划问题,提出了一种机器人在复杂动态环境中实时路径规划方法.该方法基于滚动窗口的路径规划和避障策略,通过设定可视点子目标、绕行障碍物和对动态障碍物的分析预测,实现机器人在复杂动态环境下的路径规划.针对障碍物分布情况,合理设计可视点法和绕行算法之间转换,有效地解决了局部路径规划的死循环与极小值问题.该方...     

Real-time path planning in dynamic virtual environments using multiagent navigation graphs

We present a novel approach for efficient path planning and navigation of multiple virtual agents in complex dynamic scenes. We introduce a new data structure, Multi-agent Navigation Graph (MaNG), which is constructed using first- and second-order Voronoi diagrams. The MaNG is used to perform route planning and proximity computations for each agent in real time. Moreover, we use the path information and proximity relationships for local dynamics computation of each agent by extending a social force model [Helbing05]. We compute the MaNG using graphics hardware and present culling techniques to accelerate the computation. We also address undersampling issues and present techniques to improve the accuracy of our algorithm. Our algorithm is used for real-time multi-agent planning in pursuit-evasion, terrain exploration and crowd simulation scenarios consisting of hundreds of moving agents, each with a distinct goal.     

动态未知环境下一种Hopfield神经网络路径规划方法

针对动态未知环境下移动机器人路径规划问题,采用一种有效的局部连接Hopfiled神经网络(Hopfield Neural Networks,HNN)来表示机器人的工作空间.机器人在HNN所形成的动态数值势场上进行爬山搜索法来形成避碰路径,并且不存在非期望的局部吸引点.HNN权值设计中考虑了路径安全性因素,通过在障碍物附件形成局部虚拟排斥力来形成安全路径.HNN的连接权是非对称的,并且考虑了信号传播时延.分析了HNN的稳定性,所给稳定性条件和时延无关.HNN模型中突出了最大传播激励,从而使得HNN具有更广的稳定性范围并能表示具有更多节点的机器人工作空间.为对该HNN有效仿真求解,结合约束距离变换和HNN的时延性,给出了单处理器上高效的串行模拟方案,规划路径的时间复杂度为O(N)(N是HNN中神经元的数目),使得路径重规划能快速在线进行.仿真和实验表明该方法的有效性.     

Online motion planning for unexplored underwater environments using autonomous underwater vehicles

We present an approach to endow an autonomous underwater vehicle with the capabilities to move through unexplored environments. To do so, we propose a computational framework for planning feasible and safe paths. The framework allows the vehicle to incrementally build a map of the surroundings, while simultaneously (re)planning a feasible path to a specified goal. To accomplish this, the framework considers motion constraints to plan feasible 3D paths, that is, those that meet the vehicle’s motion capabilities. It also incorporates a risk function to avoid navigating close to nearby obstacles. Furthermore, the framework makes use of two strategies to ensure meeting online computation limitations. The first one is to reuse the last best known solution to eliminate time‐consuming pruning routines. The second one is to opportunistically check the states’ risk of collision. To evaluate the proposed approach, we use the Sparus II performing autonomous missions in different real‐world scenarios. These experiments consist of simulated and in‐water trials for different tasks. The conducted tasks include the exploration of challenging scenarios such as artificial marine structures, natural marine structures, and confined natural environments. All these applications allow us to extensively prove the efficacy of the presented approach, not only for constant‐depth missions (2D), but, more important, for situations in which the vehicle must vary its depth (3D).     

Hierarchical incremental path planning and situation-dependent optimized dynamic motion planning considering accelerations.

This paper studies a hierarchical approach for incrementally driving a nonholonomic mobile robot to its destination in unknown environments. The A* algorithm is modified to handle a map containing unknown information. Based on it, optimal (discrete) paths are incrementally generated with a periodically updated map. Next, accelerations in varying velocities are taken into account in predicting the robot pose and the robot trajectory resulting from a motion command. Obstacle constraints are transformed to suitable velocity limits so that the robot can move as fast as possible while avoiding collisions when needed. Then, to trace the discrete path, the system searches for a waypoint-directed optimized motion in a reduced 1-D translation or rotation velocity space. Various situations of navigation are dealt with by using different strategies rather than a single objective function. Extensive simulations and experiments verified the efficacy of the proposed approach.     

动态环境下改进蚁群算法的多Agent路径规划

针对动态环境下的多Agent路径规划问题,提出了一种改进的蚁群算法与烟花算法相结合的动态路径规划方法。通过自适应信息素强度值及信息素缩减因子来加快算法的迭代速度,并利用烟花算法来解决路径规划过程中的死锁问题,避免陷入局部最优。在多Agent动态避碰过程中,根据动态障碍物与多Agent之间的运行轨迹是否相交制定相应的避碰策略,并利用路径转变函数解决多Agent的正面碰撞问题。仿真实验表明,该方法优于经典蚁群算法,能够有效解决多Agent路径规划中的碰撞问题,从而快速找到最优无碰路径。     

Editorial: Task planning and motion control problems of service robots in human-centered environments

Intelligent Service Robotics -     

Optimal and suboptimal motion planning for collision avoidance of mobile robots in non-stationary environments

An optimal control formulation of the problem of collision avoidance of mobile robots moving in terrains containingmoving obstacles is presented. A dynamic model of the mobile robot and the dynamic constraints are derived. Collision avoidance is guaranteed if the minimum distance between the robot and the objects is nonzero. A nominal trajectory is assumed to be known from off-line planning. The main idea is to change the velocity along the nominal trajectory so that collisions are avoided. Furthermore, time consistency with the nominal plan is desirable. Two solutions are obtained: (1) A numerical solution of the optimization problem and a perturbation type of control to update the optimal plan and (2) A computationally efficient method giving near optimal solutions. Simulation results verify the value of the proposed strategies and allow for comparisons.     

Autonomous mobile robot dynamic motion planning using hybrid fuzzy potential field

A new fuzzy-based potential field method is presented in this paper for autonomous mobile robot motion planning with dynamic environments including static or moving target and obstacles. Two fuzzy Mamdani and TSK models have been used to develop the total attractive and repulsive forces acting on the mobile robot. The attractive and repulsive forces were estimated using four inputs representing the relative position and velocity between the target and the robot in the x and y directions, in one hand, and between the obstacle and the robot, on the other hand. The proposed fuzzy potential field motion planning was investigated based on several conducted MATLAB simulation scenarios for robot motion planning within realistic dynamic environments. As it was noticed from these simulations that the proposed approach was able to provide the robot with collision-free path to softly land on the moving target and solve the local minimum problem within any stationary or dynamic environment compared to other potential field-based approaches.     

Planning in highly dynamic environments: an anytime approach for planning under time constraints

In this paper, we present a novel and domain-independent planner aimed at working in highly dynamic environments with time constraints. The planner follows the anytime principles: a first solution can be quickly computed and the quality of the final plan is improved as long as time is available. This way, the planner can provide either fast reactions or very good quality plans depending on the demands of the environment. As an on-line planner, it also offers important advantages: our planner allows the plan to start its execution before it is totally generated, unexpected events are efficiently tackled during execution, and sensing actions allow the acquisition of required information in partially observable domains. The planning algorithm is based on problem decomposition and relaxation techniques. The traditional relaxed planning graph has been adapted to this on-line framework by considering information about sensing actions and action costs. Results also show that our planner is competitive with other top-performing classical planners.     

Space‐time planning in changing environments : using dynamic objects for accessibility

Navigation is a critical task for agents populating virtual worlds. In the last years, numerous solutions have been proposed to solve the path planning problem in order to enhance the autonomy of virtual agents. Those solutions mainly focused on static environments, eventually populated with dynamic obstacles. However, dynamic objects are usually more than just obstacles as they can be used by an agent to reach new locations. In this paper, we propose an online path planning algorithm in dynamically changing environments with unknown evolution such as physically based‐environments. Our method represents objects in terms of obstacles but also in terms of navigable surfaces. This representation allows our algorithm to find temporal paths through disconnected and moving platforms. We will also show that the proposed method also enables several kinds of adaptations such as avoiding moving obstacles or adapting the agent postures to environmental constraints. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A timed mobile agent planning approach for distributed information retrieval in dynamic network environments

The number of mobile agents and total execution time are two factors used to represent the system overhead that must be considered as part of mobile agent planning (MAP) for distributed information retrieval. In addition to these two factors, the time constraints at the nodes of an information repository must also be taken into account when attempting to improve the quality of information retrieval. In previous studies, MAP approaches could not consider dynamic network conditions, e.g., variable network bandwidth and disconnection, such as are found in peer-to-peer (P2P) computing. For better performance, mobile agents that are more sensitive to network conditions must be used. In this paper, we propose a new MAP approach that we have named Timed Mobile Agent Planning (Tmap). The proposed approach minimizes the number of mobile agents and total execution time while keeping the turnaround time to a minimum, even if some nodes have a time constraint. It also considers dynamic network conditions to reflect the dynamic network condition more accurately. Moreover, we incorporate a security and fault-tolerance mechanism into the planning approach to better adapt it to real network environments.