Small Delay Tracing Defect Testing

This Small Delay Tracing Defect Testing detect small delay defects by creating internal signal races. The races are created by launching transitions along simultaneous two paths, a reference path and a test path. The arrival times of the transitions on a ‘convergence’ or common gate determine the result of the race. On the output of the convergence gate, a static hazard created by a small delay defect presence on the test path which is directed to the input of a scan-latch. A glitch detector is added to the scan latch which records the presence or absence of the glitch.

Comparative Analysis of MacAdam Model and PI Control in a Predictive Driver Model

Autonomous vehicles are the future of automotive engineering and understanding how this systems work is critical. In these vehicles, controller models are usually needed to generate signals that would normally be imposed by the driver e.g., steering angles, acceleration inputs and braking commands. Intuitively, each control method utilized has its peculiarities and presents different behaviours. In such situation, this paper aims to develop an error comparison between a car displacement and its reference path due the use of two different predictive driver controllers: The proportional-integrative and the MacAdam model. For this purpose, a 14 degrees of freedom vehicle model is used with the aid of MATLAB Simulink, whereas simulations were made using the double-lane change manoeuvre, a commonly used manoeuvre to analyse the vehicle dynamics performance. At the end of this paper, lateral acceleration, displacement and steering wheel angle analysis led the conclusion that the vehicle behaviour is smoother with the use of the proportional-integrative control regardless of longitudinal velocity. Nevertheless, the trajectory error is smaller for MacAdam model than PI controller is and therefore it is easier to follow the reference path with this one, although in aggressive maneuverers it can cause more discomfort and increase the risk of rolling when compared to the PI controller in a vehicle with the same body stiffness.

A Lane Level Bi-Directional Hybrid Path Planning Method Based on High Definition Map

A global reference path generated by a path search algorithm based on a road-level driving map cannot be directly used to complete the efficient autonomous path-following motion of autonomous vehicles due to the large computational load and insufficient path accuracy. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a lane-level bidirectional hybrid path planning method based on a high-definition map (HD map), which effectively completes the high-precision reference path planning task. First, the global driving environment information is extracted from the HD map, and the lane-level driving map is constructed. Real value mapping from the road network map to the driving cost is realized based on the road network information, road markings, and driving behavior data. Then, a hybrid path search method is carried out for the search space in a bidirectional search mode, where the stopping conditions of the search method are determined by the relaxation region in the two search processes. As the search process continues, the dimension of the relaxation region is updated to dynamically adjust the search scope to maintain the desired search efficiency and search effect. After the completion of the bidirectional search, the search results are evaluated and optimized to obtain the reference path with the optimal traffic cost. Finally, in an HD map based on a real scene, the path search performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with that of the simple bidirectional Dijkstra algorithm and the bidirectional BFS search algorithm. The results show that the proposed path search algorithm not only has a good optimization effect, but also has a high path search efficiency.

Steering Wheel AGV Path Tracking Control Based on Improved Pure Pursuit Model

Aiming at the path tracking problem of the AGV transfer platform of an Optical module installing and calibrating system, this paper designs a pure pursuit control strategy in which the preview distance changes adaptively according to the current speed of AGV and the curvature of the reference path. Firstly, AGV kinematics model and pure pursuit model are established according to the geometric relationship. Then fitness function is established with tracking deviation and steering stability, and Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to optimize the preview distance of pure pursuit model of AGV under various working conditions. During the tracking process, AGV selects the optimal preview distance according to the curvature of the reference path and the current speed. The simulation experiment results show that the improved pure pursuit control strategy containing curvature information of reference path can improve the adaptability of AGV when it is tracking complex path, guaranteeing tracking accuracy and steering stability.

A Model Predictive Control with Preview-Follower Theory Algorithm for Trajectory Tracking Control in Autonomous Vehicles

Research on trajectory tracking is crucial for the development of autonomous vehicles. This paper presents a trajectory tracking scheme by utilizing model predictive control (MPC) and preview-follower theory (PFT), which includes a reference generation module and a MPC controller. The reference generation module could calculate reference lateral acceleration at the preview point by PFT to update state variables, and generate a reference yaw rate in each prediction point. Since the preview range is increased, PFT makes the calculation of yaw rate more accurate. Through physical constraints, the MPC controller can achieve the best tracking of the reference path. The MPC problem is formulated as a linear time-varying (LTV) MPC controller to achieve a predictive model from nonlinear vehicle dynamics to continuous online linearization. The MPC-PFT controller method performs well by increasing the effective length of the reference path. Compared with MPC and PFT controllers, the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method are proved by simulations of two typical working conditions.

Laser-Based People Detection and Obstacle Avoidance for a Hospital Transport Robot

This paper describes the development of a laser-based people detection and obstacle avoidance algorithm for a differential-drive robot, which is used for transporting materials along a reference path in hospital domains. Detecting humans from laser data is an important functionality for the safety of navigation in the shared workspace with people. Nevertheless, traditional methods normally utilize machine learning techniques on hand-crafted geometrical features extracted from individual clusters. Moreover, the datasets used to train the models are usually small and need to manually label every laser scan, increasing the difficulty and cost of deploying people detection algorithms in new environments. To tackle these problems, (1) we propose a novel deep learning-based method, which uses the deep neural network in a sliding window fashion to effectively classify every single point of a laser scan. (2) To increase the speed of inference without losing performance, we use a jump distance clustering method to decrease the number of points needed to be evaluated. (3) To reduce the workload of labeling data, we also propose an approach to automatically annotate datasets collected in real scenarios. In general, the proposed approach runs in real-time and performs much better than traditional methods. Secondly, conventional pure reactive obstacle avoidance algorithms can produce inefficient and oscillatory behaviors in dynamic environments, making pedestrians confused and possibly leading to dangerous reactions. To improve the legibility and naturalness of obstacle avoidance in human crowded environments, we introduce a sampling-based local path planner, similar to the method used in autonomous driving cars. The key idea is to avoid obstacles by switching lanes. We also adopt a simple rule to decrease the number of unnecessary deviations from the reference path. Experiments carried out in real-world environments confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Laser-Based People Detection and Obstacle Avoidance for a Hospital Transport Robot

This paper describes the development of a laser-based people detection and obstacle avoidance algorithm for a differential-drive robot, which is used for transporting materials along a reference path in hospital domains. Detecting humans from laser data is an important functionality for the safety of navigation in the shared workspace with people. Nevertheless, traditional methods normally utilize machine learning techniques on hand-crafted geometrical features extracted from individual clusters. Moreover, the datasets used to train the models are usually small and need to manually label every laser scan, increasing the difficulty and cost of deploying people detection algorithms in new environments. To tackle these problems, (1) we propose a novel deep learning-based method, which uses the deep neural network in a sliding window fashion to effectively classify every single point of a laser scan. (2) To increase the speed of inference without losing performance, we use a jump distance clustering method to decrease the number of points needed to be evaluated. (3) To reduce the workload of labeling data, we also propose an approach to automatically annotate datasets collected in real scenarios. In general, the proposed approach runs in real-time, performs much better than traditional methods, and can be straightforwardly extended to 3D laser data. Secondly, conventional pure reactive obstacle avoidance algorithms can produce inefficient and oscillatory behaviors in dynamic environments, making pedestrians confused and possibly leading to dangerous reactions. To improve the legibility and naturalness of obstacle avoidance in human crowded environments, we introduce a sampling-based local path planner, similar to the method used in autonomous driving cars. The key idea is to avoid obstacles by switching lanes. We also adopt a simple rule to decrease the number of unnecessary deviations from the reference path. Experiments carried out in real-world environments confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Event-Based Path-Planning and Path-Following in Unknown Environments for Underactuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The paper addresses path planning and path-following problems in an unknown complex environment for an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The AUV is required to follow a given reference path represented as a sequence of smoothly joined lines and arcs, bypassing obstacles encountered on the path. A two-level control system is proposed with an upper level for event-driven path planning and a lower level for path-following. A discrete event system is designed to identify situations that require planning a new path. An improved waypoint guidance algorithm and a Dubins curves based algorithm are proposed to build paths that allow the AUV to avoid collision with obstacles and to return to the reference path respectively. Both algorithms generate paths that meet the minimum turning radius constraint. A robust parameter-varying controller is designed using sublinear vector Lyapunov functions to solve the path-following problem. The performance of the developed event-based control system is demonstrated in three different simulation scenarios: with a sharp-edged obstacle, with a U-shaped obstacle, and with densely scattered obstacles. The proposed scheme does not require significant computing resources and allows for easy implementation on board.