A neural network approach to real-time path planning with safety consideration

Author(s):  
Xianyi Yang ◽  
M. Meng
Author(s):  
Simon X. Yang

A novel biologically inspired neural network approach is proposed for real-time simultaneous map building and path planning with limited sensor information in a non-stationary environment. The dynamics of each neuron is characterized by a shunting equation with both excitatory and inhibitory connections. There are only local connections in the proposed neural network. The map of the environment is built during the real-time robot navigation with its sensor information that is limited to a short range. The real-time robot path is generated through the dynamic activity landscape of the neural network. The effectiveness and the efficiency are demonstrated by simulation studies.


Author(s):  
Simon X. Yang ◽  
◽  
Max Meng ◽  

In this paper, an effcient neural network approach to real-time path planning with obstacle avoidance of holonomic car-like robots in a dynamic environment is proposed. The dynamics of each neuron in this biologically inspired, topologically organized neural network is characterized by a shunting equation or an additive equation. The state space of the neural network is the configuration space of the robot. There are only local lateral connections among neurons. Thus the computational complexity linearly depends on the neural network size. The real-time collision-free path is planned through the dynamic neural activity landscape of the neural network without explicitly searching over neither the free workspace nor the collision paths, without any prior knowledge of the dynamic environment, without any learning procedures, and without any local collision checking procedures at each step of the robot movement. Therefore it is computationally efficient. The stability of the neural network is proven by both qualitative analysis and the Lyapunov stability theory. The effectiveness and efficiency are demonstrated through simulation studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Ni ◽  
Liuying Wu ◽  
Pengfei Shi ◽  
Simon X. Yang

Real-time path planning for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a very difficult and challenging task. Bioinspired neural network (BINN) has been used to deal with this problem for its many distinct advantages: that is, no learning process is needed and realization is also easy. However, there are some shortcomings when BINN is applied to AUV path planning in a three-dimensional (3D) unknown environment, including complex computing problem when the environment is very large and repeated path problem when the size of obstacles is bigger than the detection range of sensors. To deal with these problems, an improved dynamic BINN is proposed in this paper. In this proposed method, the AUV is regarded as the core of the BINN and the size of the BINN is based on the detection range of sensors. Then the BINN will move with the AUV and the computing could be reduced. A virtual target is proposed in the path planning method to ensure that the AUV can move to the real target effectively and avoid big-size obstacles automatically. Furthermore, a target attractor concept is introduced to improve the computing efficiency of neural activities. Finally, some experiments are conducted under various 3D underwater environments. The experimental results show that the proposed BINN based method can deal with the real-time path planning problem for AUV efficiently.


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