Dynamic Modeling for a Cylindrical Mobile Robot on Rough-Terrain

Author(s):  
Giulio Reina ◽  
Mario Foglia ◽  
Annalisa Milella ◽  
Angelo Gentile

Ground autonomous mini-mobile robots have important potential applications, such as reconnaissance, patrol, planetary exploration and military applications. To accomplish tasks on rough-terrain, control and planning methods must consider the physical characteristics of the vehicle and of its environment. Failure to understand these characteristics could lead to vehicle endangerment and mission failure. This paper describes recent and current work at Mobile Robotics Laboratory of the Politecnico of Bari in the area of rough terrain mobility and traversability of autonomous vehicles. A cylindrical shaped mobile robot is presented and its rolling motion on rough terrain is studied from both theoretical and experimental prospect. A comprehensive vehicle dynamic model is proposed based on well-established physical models of mobile robot-terrain interaction. The model is experimentally validated and it allows employing the vehicle as a tactile sensor for terrain characterization and identification. Innovative vision-based-methods are also introduced for estimating relevant kinematic parameters of the vehicle motion. It is shown that the dynamic model can describe efficiently the vehicle behavior and could enhance its mobility on rough-terrain through integration with control and planning algorithms.

2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulio Reina ◽  
Mario M. Foglia ◽  
Annalisa Milella ◽  
Angelo Gentile

Ground autonomous mobile robots have important applications, such as reconnaissance, patrol, planetary exploration, and military applications. In order to accomplish tasks on rough terrain, control and planning methods must consider the physical characteristics of the vehicle and of its environment. Failure to understand these characteristics could lead to vehicle endangement and consequent mission failure. This paper describes recent and current work at the Politecnico of Bari in collaboration with the University of Lecce in the area of deformable terrain mobility and sensing. A cylindrical mobile robot is presented and its rolling motion on terrain is studied from a theoretical and experimental prospect. A comprehensive model is developed taking into account the interaction of the vehicle with the terrain and the related dynamic ill effects, such as rolling resistance and slip, and it is experimentally validated. An unconventional application of the vehicle serving as a tactile sensor is discussed and experimental results are presented showing the effectiveness of the cylindrical mobile robot in estimating the properties of homogeneous, deformable terrain, which in turn can be used to assess the vehicle traversability.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lichuan Ren ◽  
Zhimin Xi

Abstract Path tracking error control is an important functionality in the development of autonomous vehicles when a collision-free path has been planned. Large path tracking errors could lead to collision or even out of the control of the vehicle. Vehicle dynamic models are used to minimize the vehicle path tracking error so that control strategies can be designed under different scenarios. However, the vehicle dynamic model may not truly represent the actual vehicle dynamics. Furthermore, the nominal parameter employed in the vehicle dynamic model cannot represent actual operating conditions of the vehicle under environmental uncertainty. This paper presents a learning-based bias modeling method to improve the fidelity of any baseline vehicle dynamics model so that effective path tracking controller design can be achieved through a low fidelity but high-efficiency vehicle dynamic model with the aid of a few experiments or high fidelity simulations. The state-of-the-art of machine learning models, such as Gaussian process (GP) regression, recurrent neural network (RNN), and long short-term memory (LSTM) network, are employed for bias learning and comparison. A high-fidelity vehicle simulator, CARLA, is employed to collect virtual test data and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed bias-learning based control strategies under environmental uncertainty.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Payá ◽  
A. Gil ◽  
O. Reinoso

Nowadays, the field of mobile robotics is experiencing a quick evolution, and a variety of autonomous vehicles is available to solve different tasks. The advances in computer vision have led to a substantial increase in the use of cameras as the main sensors in mobile robots. They can be used as the only source of information or in combination with other sensors such as odometry or laser. Among vision systems, omnidirectional sensors stand out due to the richness of the information they provide the robot with, and an increasing number of works about them have been published over the last few years, leading to a wide variety of frameworks. In this review, some of the most important works are analysed. One of the key problems the scientific community is addressing currently is the improvement of the autonomy of mobile robots. To this end, building robust models of the environment and solving the localization and navigation problems are three important abilities that any mobile robot must have. Taking it into account, the review concentrates on these problems; how researchers have addressed them by means of omnidirectional vision; the main frameworks they have proposed; and how they have evolved in recent years.


2018 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 03013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valery Gradetsky ◽  
Ivan Ermolov ◽  
Maxim Knyazkov ◽  
Boris Lapin ◽  
Eugeny Semenov ◽  
...  

One of the priority functional tasks of both industrial and mobile robotics is to perform operations for moving payloads in space. Typically, researchers pay attention to control the movement of the robot on different soils. It is necessary to underline the specificity of the movements of mobile robots, the main functional purpose of which is the movement of different objects. Unlike other robot applications there is the fact that transported cargo may have different mass-dimensional characteristics. The payload should be comparable to the mass of the mobile robot. This article addresses the issue of passability on rough terrain for a mobile robot performing the transport task and proposed a technical solution in the field of mechanics of propulsion to improve propelling of the traction wheel of the mobile robot with the ground.


2019 ◽  
Vol 139 (9) ◽  
pp. 1041-1050
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Nakagomi ◽  
Yoshihiro Fuse ◽  
Hidehiko Hosaka ◽  
Hironaga Miyamoto ◽  
Takashi Nakamura ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Patrice D. Tremoulet ◽  
Thomas Seacrist ◽  
Chelsea Ward McIntosh ◽  
Helen Loeb ◽  
Anna DiPietro ◽  
...  

Objective Identify factors that impact parents’ decisions about allowing an unaccompanied child to ride in an autonomous vehicle (AV). Background AVs are being tested in several U.S. cities and on highways in multiple states. Meanwhile, suburban parents are using ridesharing services to shuttle children from school to extracurricular activities. Parents may soon be able to hire AVs to transport children. Method Nineteen parents of 8- to 16-year-old children, and some of their children, rode in a driving simulator in autonomous mode, then were interviewed. Parents also participated in focus groups. Topics included minimum age for solo child passengers, types of trips unaccompanied children might take, and vehicle features needed to support child passengers. Results Parents would require two-way audio communication and prefer video feeds of vehicle interiors, seatbelt checks, automatic locking, secure passenger identification, and remote access to vehicle information. Parents cited convenience as the greatest benefit and fear that AVs could not protect passengers during unplanned trip interruptions as their greatest concern. Conclusion Manufacturers have an opportunity to design family-friendly AVs from the outset, rather than retrofit them to be safe for child passengers. More research, especially usability studies where families interact with technology prototypes, is needed to understand how AV design impacts child passengers. Application Potential applications of this research include not only designing vehicles that can be used to safely transport children, seniors who no longer drive, and individuals with disabilities but also developing regulations, policies, and societal infrastructure to support safe child transport via AVs.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gene Y. Liao

Abstract Many general-purpose and specialized simulation codes are becoming more flexible which allows analyses to be carried out simultaneously in a coupled manner called co-simulation. Using co-simulation technique, this paper develops an integrated simulation of an Electric Power Steering (EPS) control system with a full vehicle dynamic model. A full vehicle dynamic model interacting with EPS control algorithm is concurrently simulated on a single bump road condition. The effects of EPS on the vehicle dynamic behavior and handling responses resulting from steer and road input are analyzed and compared with proving ground experimental data. The comparisons show reasonable agreement on tie-rod load, rack displacement, steering wheel torque and tire center acceleration. This developed co-simulation capability may be useful for EPS performance evaluation and calibration as well as for vehicle handling performance integration.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Jiang ◽  
Yating Shi ◽  
Dehua Zou ◽  
Hongwei Zhang ◽  
Hong Jun Li

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to achieve the optimal system design of a four-wheel mobile robot on transmission line maintenance, as the authors know transmission line mobile robot is a kind of special robot which runs on high-voltage cable to replace or assist manual power maintenance operation. In the process of live working, the manipulator, working end effector and the working environment are located in the narrow space and with heterogeneous shapes, the robot collision-free obstacle avoidance movement is the premise to complete the operation task. In the simultaneous operation, the mechanical properties between the manipulator effector and the operation object are the key to improve the operation reliability. These put forward higher requirements for the mechanical configuration and dynamic characteristics of the robot, and this is the purpose of the manuscript. Design/methodology/approach Based on the above, aiming at the task of tightening the tension clamp for the four-split transmission lines, the paper proposed a four-wheel mobile robot mechanism configuration and its terminal tool which can adapt to the walking and operation on multi-split transmission lines. In the study, the dynamic models of the rigid robot and flexible transmission line are established, respectively, and the dynamic model of rigid-flexible coupling system is established on this basis, the working space and dynamic characteristics of the robot have been simulated in ADAMS and MATLAB. Findings The research results show that the mechanical configuration of this robot can complete the tightening operation of the four-split tension clamp bolts and the motion of robot each joint meets the requirements of driving torque in the operation process, which avoids the operation failure of the robot system caused by the insufficient or excessive driving force of the robot joint torque. Originality/value Finally, the engineering practicability of the mechanical configuration and dynamic model proposed in the paper has been verified by the physical prototype. The originality value of the research is that it has double important theoretical significance and practical application value for the optimization of mechanical structure parameters and electrical control parameters of transmission line mobile robots.


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