scholarly journals An Optimized Trajectory Planner and Motion Controller Framework for Autonomous Driving in Unstructured Environments

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4409
Author(s):  
Lu Xiong ◽  
Zhiqiang Fu ◽  
Dequan Zeng ◽  
Bo Leng

This paper proposes an optimized trajectory planner and motion planner framework, which aim to deal with obstacle avoidance along a reference road for autonomous driving in unstructured environments. The trajectory planning problem is decomposed into lateral and longitudinal planning sub-tasks along the reference road. First, a vehicle kinematic model with road coordinates is established to describe the lateral movement of the vehicle. Then, nonlinear optimization based on a vehicle kinematic model in the space domain is employed to smooth the reference road. Second, a multilayered search algorithm is applied in the lateral-space domain to deal with obstacles and find a suitable path boundary. Then, the optimized path planner calculates the optimal path by considering the distance to the reference road and the curvature constraints. Furthermore, the optimized speed planner takes into account the speed boundary in the space domain and the constraints on vehicle acceleration. The optimal speed profile is obtained by using a numerical optimization method. Furthermore, a motion controller based on a kinematic error model is proposed to follow the desired trajectory. Finally, the experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed trajectory planner and motion controller framework in handling typical scenarios and avoiding obstacles safely and smoothly on the reference road and in unstructured environments.

Author(s):  
Hrishikesh Dey ◽  
Rithika Ranadive ◽  
Abhishek Chaudhari

Path planning algorithm integrated with a velocity profile generation-based navigation system is one of the most important aspects of an autonomous driving system. In this paper, a real-time path planning solution to obtain a feasible and collision-free trajectory is proposed for navigating an autonomous car on a virtual highway. This is achieved by designing the navigation algorithm to incorporate a path planner for finding the optimal path, and a velocity planning algorithm for ensuring a safe and comfortable motion along the obtained path. The navigation algorithm was validated on the Unity 3D Highway-Simulated Environment for practical driving while maintaining velocity and acceleration constraints. The autonomous vehicle drives at the maximum specified velocity until interrupted by vehicular traffic, whereas then, the path planner, based on the various constraints provided by the simulator using µWebSockets, decides to either decelerate the vehicle or shift to a more secure lane. Subsequently, a splinebased trajectory generation for this path results in continuous and smooth trajectories. The velocity planner employs an analytical method based on trapezoidal velocity profile to generate velocities for the vehicle traveling along the precomputed path. To provide smooth control, an s-like trapezoidal profile is considered that uses a cubic spline for generating velocities for the ramp-up and ramp-down portions of the curve. The acceleration and velocity constraints, which are derived from road limitations and physical systems, are explicitly considered. Depending upon these constraints and higher module requirements (e.g., maintaining velocity, and stopping), an appropriate segment of the velocity profile is deployed. The motion profiles for all the use-cases are generated and verified graphically.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Xiaomei Hu ◽  
Zhaoren Pan ◽  
Shunke Lv

The design and application of the mushroom picking robot will greatly reduce the labor cost, and it has become one of the research hotspots in the world. Therefore, we independently developed an A. bisporus (a kind of mushroom) picking robot and introduced its functional principle in this paper. At the same time, in order to improve the picking efficiency of the picking robot, a picking path optimization algorithm based on TSP model is proposed. Firstly, based on the TSP model, a picking route model for A. bisporus was established to determine the storage location of each A. bisporus. Then, an improved simulated annealing (I-SA) search algorithm is proposed to find the optimal path sequence. By improving the path initialization module, path generation module, and temperature drop module, the I-SA search algorithm can optimize the picking path in a short time. Finally, in order to improve the stability and reduce the running time of the I-SA search algorithm, a parallel optimization method for global search (“rough exploration”) and local search (“precision exploration”) is proposed. Through simulation experiments, the I-SA search algorithm can search stable and excellent path solution in a relatively short time. Through field experiments on mushroom base, the efficiency of picking A. bisporus can be improved by 14% to 18%, which verifies the effectiveness of the I-SA search algorithm.


Robotica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 643-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. Korayem ◽  
M. Irani ◽  
A. Charesaz ◽  
A. H. Korayem ◽  
A. Hashemi

SUMMARYThis paper presents a solution for optimal trajectory planning problem of robotic manipulators with complicated dynamic equations. The main goal is to find the optimal path with maximum dynamic load carrying capacity (DLCC). Proposed method can be implemented to problems of both motion along a specified path and point-to-point motion. Dynamic Programming (DP) approach is applied to solve optimization problem and find the positions and velocities that minimize a pre-defined performance index. Unlike previous attempts, proposed method increases the speed of convergence by using the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) formulation. This formulation is used for solving problems with nonlinear constraints. Also, this paper proposes a new algorithm to design optimal trajectory with maximum DLCC for both fixed and mobile base mechanical manipulators. Algorithms for DLCC calculations in previous works were based on indirect optimization method or linear programming approach. The proposed trajectory planning method is applied to a linear tracked Puma and the mobile manipulator named Scout. Application of this algorithm is confirmed and simulation results are compared with experimental results for Scout robot. In experimental test, results are obtained using a new stereo vision system to determine the position of the robot end-effector.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1126
Author(s):  
Meiyi Wu ◽  
Anmin Zhang ◽  
Miao Gao ◽  
Jiali Zhang

Ship motion planning constitutes the most critical part in the autonomous navigation systems of marine autonomous surface ships (MASS). Weather and ocean conditions can significantly affect their navigation, but there are relatively few studies on the influence of wind and current on motion planning. This study investigates the motion planning problem for USV, wherein the goal is to obtain an optimal path under the interference of the navigation environment (wind and current), and control the USV in order to avoid obstacles and arrive at its destination without collision. In this process, the influences of search efficiency, navigation safety and energy consumption on motion planning are taken into consideration. Firstly, the navigation environment is constructed by integrating information, including the electronic navigational chart, wind and current field. Based on the environmental interference factors, the three-degree-of-freedom kinematic model of USVs is created, and the multi-objective optimization and complex constraints are reasonably expressed to establish the corresponding optimization model. A multi-objective optimization algorithm based on HA* is proposed after considering the constraints of motion and dynamic and optimization objectives. Simulation verifies the effectiveness of the algorithm, where an efficient, safe and economical path is obtained and is more in line with the needs of practical application.


Robotica ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 1017-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingchong Ma ◽  
Gang Zheng ◽  
Wilfrid Perruquetti ◽  
Zhaopeng Qiu

SUMMARYThis paper presents a path planning algorithm for autonomous navigation of non-holonomic mobile robots in complex environments. The irregular contour of obstacles is represented by segments. The goal of the robot is to move towards a known target while avoiding obstacles. The velocity constraints, robot kinematic model and non-holonomic constraint are considered in the problem. The optimal path planning problem is formulated as a constrained receding horizon planning problem and the trajectory is obtained by solving an optimal control problem with constraints. Local minima are avoided by choosing intermediate objectives based on the real-time environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 249 ◽  
pp. 03011
Author(s):  
Keimargeo McQueen ◽  
Sara Darensbourg ◽  
Carl Moore ◽  
Tarik Dickens ◽  
Clement Allen

We have designed a path planner for an additive manufacturing (AM) prototype that consists of two robotic arms which collaborate on a single part. Theoretically, with two nozzle equipped arms, a part can be 3D printed twice as fast. Moreover, equipping the second robot with a machining tool enables the completion of secondary operations like hole reaming or surface milling before the printing is finished. With two arms in the part space care must be taken to ensure that the arms collaborate intelligently; in particular, tasks must be planned so that the robots do not collide. This paper discusses the development of a robot path planner to efficiently print segments with two arms, while maintaining a safe distance between them. A solution to the travelling salesman problem, an optimal path planning problem, was used to successfully determine the robots path plans while a simple nozzle-to-nozzle distance calculation was added to represent avoiding robot-to-robot collisions. As a result, in simulation, the average part completion time was reduced by 45% over the single nozzle case. Importantly, the algorithm can theoretically be run on n-robots, so time reduction possibilities are large.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wuchen Li ◽  
Shui-Nee Chow ◽  
Magnus Egerstedt ◽  
Jun Lu ◽  
Haomin Zho

We propose a novel algorithm to find the global optimal path in 2D environments with moving obstacles, where the optimality is understood relative to a general convex continuous running cost. By leveraging the geometric structures of optimal solutions and using gradient flows, we convert the path-planning problem into a system of finite dimensional ordinary differential equations, whose dimensions change dynamically. Then a stochastic differential equation based optimization method, called intermittent diffusion, is employed to obtain the global optimal solution. We demonstrate, via numerical examples, that the new algorithm can solve the problem efficiently.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 420
Author(s):  
Stefano Quer ◽  
Luz Garcia

Research on autonomous cars has become one of the main research paths in the automotive industry, with many critical issues that remain to be explored while considering the overall methodology and its practical applicability. In this paper, we present an industrial experience in which we build a complete autonomous driving system, from the sensor units to the car control equipment, and we describe its adoption and testing phase on the field. We report how we organize data fusion and map manipulation to represent the required reality. We focus on the communication and synchronization issues between the data-fusion device and the path-planner, between the CPU and the GPU units, and among different CUDA kernels implementing the core local planner module. In these frameworks, we propose simple representation strategies and approximation techniques which guarantee almost no penalty in terms of accuracy and large savings in terms of memory occupation and memory transfer times. We show how we adopt a recent implementation on parallel many-core devices, such as CUDA-based GPGPU, to reduce the computational burden of rapidly exploring random trees to explore the state space along with a given reference path. We report on our use of the controller and the vehicle simulator. We run experiments on several real scenarios, and we report the paths generated with the different settings, with their relative errors and computation times. We prove that our approach can generate reasonable paths on a multitude of standard maneuvers in real time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 179 ◽  
pp. 03024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Pan ◽  
Zhong Ming Chi ◽  
Qi Long Rao ◽  
Kai Peng Sun ◽  
Yi Nan Liu

Mission planning problem for remote sensing satellite imaging is studied. Firstly, the time constraint satisfaction problem model is presented after analyzing the characteristic of time constraint. Then, An optimal path searching algorithm based on the discrete time window is proposed according to the non-uniqueness for satellite to mission in the visible time window. Simulation results verify the efficiency of the model and algorithm.


Author(s):  
Xi Chen ◽  
Yining Wang ◽  
Yuan Zhou

We study the dynamic assortment planning problem, where for each arriving customer, the seller offers an assortment of substitutable products and the customer makes the purchase among offered products according to an uncapacitated multinomial logit (MNL) model. Because all the utility parameters of the MNL model are unknown, the seller needs to simultaneously learn customers’ choice behavior and make dynamic decisions on assortments based on the current knowledge. The goal of the seller is to maximize the expected revenue, or, equivalently, to minimize the expected regret. Although dynamic assortment planning problem has received an increasing attention in revenue management, most existing policies require the estimation of mean utility for each product and the final regret usually involves the number of products [Formula: see text]. The optimal regret of the dynamic assortment planning problem under the most basic and popular choice model—the MNL model—is still open. By carefully analyzing a revenue potential function, we develop a trisection-based policy combined with adaptive confidence bound construction, which achieves an item-independent regret bound of [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the length of selling horizon. We further establish the matching lower bound result to show the optimality of our policy. There are two major advantages of the proposed policy. First, the regret of all our policies has no dependence on [Formula: see text]. Second, our policies are almost assumption-free: there is no assumption on mean utility nor any “separability” condition on the expected revenues for different assortments. We also extend our trisection search algorithm to capacitated MNL models and obtain the optimal regret [Formula: see text] (up to logrithmic factors) without any assumption on the mean utility parameters of items.


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