The domain and technology of mobile robotic space exploration are fast moving from brief visits to benign Mars surface regions to more challenging terrain and sustained exploration. Further, the overall venue and conc...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
The domain and technology of mobile robotic space exploration are fast moving from brief visits to benign Mars surface regions to more challenging terrain and sustained exploration. Further, the overall venue and concept of space robotic exploration are expanding-"from flatland to 3D'-from the surface;to sub-surface and aerial theatres on disparate large and small planetary bodies, including Mars, Venus, Titan, Europa, and small asteroids. These new space robotic system developments are being facilitated by concurrent, synergistic advances in software and hardware technologies for robotic mobility, particularly as regard on-board system autonomy and novel thermo-mechanical design. We outline these directions of emerging mobile science mission interest and technology enablement, including illustrative work at JPL on terrain-adaptive and multi-robot cooperative rover systems, aerobotic mobility, and subsurface ice explorers.
Our work describes generic solutions for controlling various different robots through IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN. Our goals have been to develop a remote-operating architecture for robots with different configurations ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
Our work describes generic solutions for controlling various different robots through IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN. Our goals have been to develop a remote-operating architecture for robots with different configurations of sensors and actuators, as well as, controlling multiple robots through a wireless network. Our earlier development work on network-distributed control architecture for mobile robots provides a suitable platform for remote operation. In CORBA based architecture, new sensors or actuators, and new automatic functionality are easy to append. In addition to functionality, we have been developing user interfaces that contain generally useful components for multiple purposes and a possibility to control different shapes of robots and multiple robots at the same time. As a basic idea, the user interface should always be easily customizable, platform portable and require only a minimum amount of installation packages.
The intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) is one of three, unmanned systems, student competitions that were founded by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in the 1990s. The IGVC ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
The intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) is one of three, unmanned systems, student competitions that were founded by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in the 1990s. The IGVC is a multidisciplinary exercise in product realization that challenges college engineering student teams to integrate advanced control theory, machine vision, vehicular electronics, and mobile platform fundamentals to design and build an unmanned system. Both U.S. and international teams focus on developing a suite of dual-use technologies to equip ground vehicles of the future with intelligent driving capabilities. Over the past 11 years, the competition has challenged both undergraduates and graduates, including Ph.D. students with real world applications in intelligent transportation systems, the military, and manufacturing automation. To date, teams from over 40 universities and colleges have participated. In this paper, we describe some of the applications of the technologies required by this competition, and discuss the educational benefits. The primary goal of the IGVC is to advance engineering education in intelligent vehicles and related technologies. The employment and professional networking opportunities created for students and industrial sponsors through a series of technical events over the three-day competition are highlighted. Finally, an assessment of the competition based on participant feedback is presented.
Unlike intelligent industrial robots which often work in a structured factory setting, intelligent mobile robots must often operate in an unstructured environment cluttered with obstacles and with many possible action...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
Unlike intelligent industrial robots which often work in a structured factory setting, intelligent mobile robots must often operate in an unstructured environment cluttered with obstacles and with many possible action paths. However, such machines have many potential applications in medicine, defense, industry and even the home that make their study important. Sensors such as vision are needed. However, in many applications some form of learning is also required. The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion of recent technical advances in learning for intelligent mobile robots. During the past 20 years, the use of intelligent industrial robots that are equipped not only with motion control systems but also with sensors such as cameras, laser scanners, or tactile sensors that permit adaptation to a changing environment has increased dramatically. However, relatively little has been done concerning learning. Adaptive and robust control permits one to achieve point to point and controlled path operation in a changing environment. This problem can be solved with a learning control. In the unstructured environment, the terrain and consequently the load on the robot's motors are constantly changing. Learning the parameters of a proportional, integral and derivative controller (PID) and artificial neural network provides an adaptive and robust control. Learning may also be used for path following. Simulations that include learning may be conducted to see if a robot can learn its way through a cluttered array of obstacles. If a situation is performed repetitively, then learning can also be used in the actual application. To reach an even higher degree of autonomous operation, a new level of learning is required. Recently learning theories such as the adaptive critic have been proposed. In this type of learning a critic provides a grade to the controller of an action module such as a robot. The creative control process is used that is "beyond the adaptive critic." A
In recent years, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has solidified its presence as a dependable means of navigation by providing absolute positioning in various applications. While GPS alone can provide of position i...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
In recent years, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has solidified its presence as a dependable means of navigation by providing absolute positioning in various applications. While GPS alone can provide of position information, it has several weaknesses, such as low data output rate and vulnerability to external disturbances. We explore the feasibility of an integrated positioning system using a Differential GPS (DGPS) and a CCD camera vision system for the control of an automated vehicle. In this paper we propose an algorithm that translates the camera coordinates into the TM coordinates and WGS84 coordinate in the area where the GPS data are not readily available. In this proposed method, various parameters are estimated and corrected, which includes heading angle, velocity, curvature of road, and height of road surface. We also present the results which were obtained using the actual vehicle equipped with the vision system. It was shown that errors in DGPS may be corrected by effectively using the measurement from the vision system.
Utilizing off the shelf low cost parts, we have constructed a robot that is small, light, powerful and relatively inexpensive (< $3900). The system is constructed around the Beowulf concept of linking multiple disc...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
Utilizing off the shelf low cost parts, we have constructed a robot that is small, light, powerful and relatively inexpensive (< $3900). The system is constructed around the Beowulf concept of linking multiple discrete computing units into a single cooperative system. The goal of this project is to demonstrate a new robotics platform with sufficient computing resources to run biologically-inspired visionalgorithms in real-time. This is accomplished by connecting two dual-CPU embedded PC motherboards using fast gigabit Ethernet. The motherboards contain integrated Firewire, USB and serial connections to handle camera, servomotor, GPS and other miscellaneous inputs/outputs. Computing systems are mounted on a servomechanism-controlled off-the-shelf "Off Road" RC car. Using the high performance characteristics of the car, the robot can attain relatively high speeds outdoors. The robot is used as a test platform for biologically-inspired as well as traditional robotic algorithms, in outdoor navigation and exploration activities. Leader following using multi blob tracking and segmentation, and navigation using statistical information and decision inference from image spectral information are discussed. The design of the robot is open-source and is constructed in a manner that enhances ease of replication. This is done to facilitate construction and development of mobile robots at research institutions where large financial resources may not be readily available as well as to put robots into the hands of hobbyists and help lead to the next stage in the evolution of robotics, a home hobby robot with potential real world applications.
The vision evolved not only as a recognition system, but also as a sensory system for reaching, grasping and other motion activities. In advanced creatures, it has become a component of prediction functions, allowing ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
The vision evolved not only as a recognition system, but also as a sensory system for reaching, grasping and other motion activities. In advanced creatures, it has become a component of prediction functions, allowing the creation of environmental models and activity planning. Fast information processing and decision making requires reduction of informational and computational complexities. The brain achieves this goal using symbolic coding, hierarchical compression, and selective processing of visual information. Network-Symbolic representation, where both systematic structural/logical methods and neural/statistical methods are the parts of a single mechanism, is the most feasible for such models. It converts visual information into the relational Network-Symbolic structures, instead of precise computations of 3-dimensional models. Narrow foveal vision provides separation of figure from ground, object identification, semantic analysis, and precise control of actions. Rough wide peripheral vision identifies and tracks salient motion, guiding foveal system to salient objects. It also provides scene context. Objects and other stable systems have coherent relational structures. Network-Symbolic transformations derive more abstract structures that allow invariably recognize a particular structure as an exemplar of class. Robotic systems, equipped with such smart vision, will be able to navigate in any environment, understand situation, and act accordingly.
An autonomous robot must be able to sense its environment and react appropriately in a variable environment. The University of Cincinnati Robot team is actively involved in building a small, unmanned, autonomously gui...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
An autonomous robot must be able to sense its environment and react appropriately in a variable environment. The University of Cincinnati Robot team is actively involved in building a small, unmanned, autonomously guided vehicle for the International Ground Robotics Contest organized by Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) each year. The unmanned vehicle is supposed to follow an obstacle course bounded by two white/yellow lines, which are four inches thick and 10 feet apart. The navigation system for one of the University of Cincinnati's designs, Bearcat, uses 2 CCD cameras and an image-tracking device for the front end processing of the image captured by the cameras. The three dimensional world co-ordinates were reduced to two dimensional image coordinates as a result of the transformations taking place from the ground plane to the image plane. A novel automatic calibration system was designed to transform the image co-ordinates back to world co-ordinates for navigation purposes. The purpose of this paper is to simplify this tedious calibration using an artificial neural network. Image processing is used to automatically detect calibration points. Then a back projection neural algorithm is used to learn the relationships between the image coordinates and three-dimensional coordinates. This transformation is the main focus of this study. Using these algorithms, the robot built with this design is able to track and follow the lines successfully.
For robust and safe cross country driving, an autonomous ground vehicle must be able to handle conflicts, which may arise from limitations of perception performance, of the dynamics of the vehicle's active camera ...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
For robust and safe cross country driving, an autonomous ground vehicle must be able to handle conflicts, which may arise from limitations of perception performance, of the dynamics of the vehicle's active camera head and from the feasibility of locomotion maneuvers. This paper describes the interaction and coordination of image processing, gaze control and behavior decision. The behavior decision module specifies the perception tasks for the image processing experts according to the mission, the capabilities of the vehicle and the knowledge about the external world accumulated up to the present time. Depending on its perception task received, an image processing expert specifies combinations of socalled rep-ions of attention (RoA) for each object in 3D object coordinates. These RoA cover relevant object parts and should be visible with a resolution and in a manner as required by the measurement techniques applied. The gaze control unit analyzes the combinations of RoA of all image processing experts in order to plan, optimize and perform a sequence of smooth pursuits, interrupted by saccades. This dynamic interaction has been demonstrated in different complex and scalable autonomous missions with the UBM test vehicle VAMORS. The mission described in this paper makes the vehicle meet an unexpected ditch of unknown size and position forcing the vehicle to reactive behavior regarding locomotion, gaze control as well as image processing.
Secure remote access with inter-operatability for operating a robot can be successfully achieved using the web services provided in the NET framework. The complete design of the machine discussed in this paper is made...
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ISBN:
(纸本)081945155X
Secure remote access with inter-operatability for operating a robot can be successfully achieved using the web services provided in the NET framework. The complete design of the machine discussed in this paper is made on the NET framework. The server which operates the robot is configured to US. The algorithm for obstacle detection is coded on a different server using the NET framework. By using web services, the robot can be accessed by other servers. These web services are consumed by the server on which the robot executes. A proxy is created on this server. The whole control is given in the form of a series of web pages which can be accessed by any web browser. However in order to input parameters and control the robot, authentication is required. The user provides authentication credentials which are matched with the existing information on the data base. After authentication, the user proceeds further to control the robot. The security and reliability of remote access is provided by the components that come with the web services namely, SOAP, WSDL and Proxy.
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