Can you feel it? What does it mean? Notifications for Operators of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) During Operational Missions

Vibro-tactile interfaces can support users in various aspects and contexts. Despite their inherent advantages, it is important to realize that they are limited in the type and capacity of information they can convey. This study is part of a series of experiments that aim to develop and evaluate a “tactile taxonomy” for dismounted operational environments. The current experiment includes a simulation of an operational mission with a remote Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). During the mission, 20 participants were required to interpret notifications that they received in one (or more) of the following modalities: auditory, visual and/or tactile. Three specific notification types were chosen based on previous studies, in order to provide an intuitive connection between the notification and its semantic meaning. Response times to notifications, the ability to distinguish between the information types that they provided, and the operational mission performance metrics, were collected. Results indicate that it is possible to use a limited “tactile taxonomy” in a visually loaded and auditory noisy scene while performing a demanding operational task. The use of the tactile modality with other sensory modalities leverages the participants’ ability to perceive and identify the notifications.

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Tire-Terrain Normal and Longitudinal Dynamics and Slip Power Losses of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Volume 4A: Dynamics, Vibration and Control ◽

10.1115/imece2013-65946 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mostafa Salama ◽

Vladimir V. Vantsevich

Keyword(s):

Rolling Resistance ◽

Computational Time ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicle ◽

Ground Vehicles ◽

Power Losses ◽

Ground Vehicle ◽

Longitudinal Dynamics ◽

Straight Line ◽

On Line ◽

Terrain Characteristics

Studies of the tire-terrain interaction have mostly been completed on vehicles with steered wheels, but not much work has been done regarding skid-steered Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV). This paper introduces a mathematical model of normal and longitudinal dynamics of a UGV with four skid-steered pneumatic tire wheels. Unlike the common approach, in which two wheels at each side are treated as one wheel (i.e., having the same rotational speeds), all four wheels in this study are independently driven. Thus the interaction of each tire with deformable terrain is introduced as holonomic constraints. The stress-strain characteristics for tire-soil interaction are analyzed based on modern Terramechanics methods and then further used to determine the circumferential wheel forces of the four tires. Contributions of three components of each tire circumferential force to tire slippages are modeled and analyzed when the tire normal loads vary during vehicle straight-line motion. The considered tire-soil characteristics are mathematically reduced to a form that allows condensing the computational time for on-line computing tire-terrain characteristics. Additionally, rolling resistance of the tires is analyzed and incorporated in the UGV dynamic equations. Moreover, the paper describes the physics of slip power losses in the tire-soil interaction of the four tires and applies it to small skid-steered UGV. This study also formulates an optimization problem of the minimization of the power losses in the tire-soil interactions due to the tire slippage.

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Towards Energy Efficient Follow Behaviors for Unmanned Ground Vehicles Over Rugged Terrains

Volume 4: 36th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference, Parts A and B ◽

10.1115/detc2012-71251 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Madan M. Dabbeeru ◽

Joshua D. Langsfeld ◽

Petr Svec ◽

Satyandra K. Gupta

Keyword(s):

State Space ◽

Energy Efficient ◽

The State ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicles ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicle ◽

Ground Vehicles ◽

Ground Vehicle ◽

Rugged Terrain ◽

Simulation Results ◽

The Relationship

This paper focuses on the development of a follow behavior for an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) in collaborative scenarios. The scenario being studied involves a human traveling over a rugged terrain on foot. The UGV follows the human. We present an approach for automatically generating a reactive energy-efficient follow behavior that maps the vehicle’s states into motion goals. We start by partitioning the state space that encodes the relationship between the state of the vehicle and the human’s state, and the environment. For each cell in the partitioned state space, we either directly generate the motion goal for the vehicle to execute or a function that produces the motion goal. The motion goal defines not only the location towards which the vehicle should move but also specifies a zero activity zone around the human within which the vehicle is supposed to slow down and remain stationary to save its energy until it gets outside the margin caused by the movement of the human. Our approach utilizes off-line simulations to assess the performance of the generated behavior. Our simulation results show that the automatically generated follow behavior significantly outperforms a simple conservative tracking rule in terms of distance traveled and violation of proximity constraints. We anticipate that the approach presented in this paper will ultimately enable us to implement energy efficient follow behaviors on physical UGVs.

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Research on Inductive Power Charging Device of Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.852.660 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 852 ◽

pp. 660-664

Author(s):

Zhi Ning Li ◽

Jian Wei Chen ◽

Ying Tang Zhang ◽

Gang Yin

Keyword(s):

Power Converter ◽

Air Gap ◽

Constant Current ◽

Resonant Circuit ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicle ◽

Ground Vehicles ◽

Ground Vehicle ◽

Charging System ◽

Series Resonant ◽

Inductive Power

It is important to charge accumulator automatically on unmanned ground vehicles. A kind of inductive power charging system, with rotary type coupler and series-resonant power converter of full bridge, is designed. The working progress of resonant circuit and main circuit is simulated. The result of experiments shows that the simulation model of main circuit agrees well with practice and can instruct design of power converter in the future. The efficiency of power transferring decreases with coupler air gap increasing. The designed inductive charging device can charge accumulator with constant current while the air gap is 1.2 mm.

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Motion and Energy Efficiency Parameters of the Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Solid State Phenomena ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/ssp.220-221.934 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 220-221 ◽

pp. 934-939 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Eero Väljaots ◽

Raivo Sell ◽

Mati Kaeeli

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Data Acquisition ◽

Real Time ◽

Design Process ◽

Field Tests ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicles ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicle ◽

Ground Vehicles ◽

Ground Vehicle ◽

Acquisition Method

The paper investigates the data acquisition method and a system of wheeled mobile unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) for characterization and optimization of motion and energy efficiency. This enables to conduct real-time and conditional field tests. The obtained results are used for an advanced methodology framework for robotic design targeted on the development, simulation and testing of vehicle platforms along the entire design process.

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Multi-Role Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Bomb Detection and Surveillance

International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology - Regular Issue ◽

10.35940/ijeat.f1165.0886s219 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (6S2) ◽

pp. 558-561

Keyword(s):

Modular Design ◽

Robotic Arm ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicles ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicle ◽

Ground Vehicles ◽

Metal Detector ◽

Security Forces ◽

Ground Vehicle ◽

Emergency Operations ◽

Key Aspects

Nowadays the world is very insecure due to various problems like terrorism , natural disasters , emergency health situations and surveillance. Valuable lives are being lost in various situation due to human negligence when carrying out rescue or emergency operations. Even though when our security forces are tireless working to save us everyday , we still have problem to entirely secure ourselves in different situation. To counter these issues we propose a project. Our project is a multi-role capable unmanned ground vehicle. It has three key aspects the modular design , robotic arm and surveillance The current types of unmanned ground vehicles are designed for doing only one specific task like handling a bomb or only carrying payloads but our unmanned ground vehicle is designed to undertake multiple tasks. When required the unmanned ground vehicle can be fitted with a robotic arm , metal detector or storage compartment for carrying supplies and even wireless camera for surveillance .The operations to be performed are done using two control methods RF control and through microcontroller chips. By implementing a mix of modular design, simple and cheap circuitry we can develop an effective and reliable multi-role capable unmanned ground vehicles.

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Magnetic surveying with an unmanned ground vehicle

Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems ◽

10.1139/juvs-2018-0013 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 249-266

Author(s):

A. Hay ◽

C. Samson ◽

L. Tuck ◽

A. Ellery

Keyword(s):

Separation Distance ◽

Field Conditions ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicle ◽

Ground Vehicles ◽

Ground Vehicle ◽

Development Platform ◽

Full Speed ◽

Aerial Vehicle ◽

The Impact ◽

Vehicle Market

With the recent proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles for geophysical surveying, a novel opportunity exists to develop unmanned ground vehicles in parallel. This contribution features a study to integrate the Husky A200 robotic development platform with a GSMP 35U magnetometer that has recently been developed for the unmanned aerial vehicle market. Methods to identify and reduce the impact of magnetically noisy components on the unmanned ground vehicle platforms are discussed. The noise generated by the platform in laboratory and gentle field conditions, estimated using the fourth difference method for a magnetometer–vehicle separation distance of 121 cm and rotation of the chassis wheels at full speed (1 m/s), is ±1.97 nT. The integrated unmanned ground vehicle was used to conduct two robotic magnetic surveys to map cultural targets and natural variations of the magnetic field. In realistic field conditions, at a full speed of 1 m/s, the unmanned ground vehicle measured total magnetic intensity over a range of 1730 nT at 0.1 m spatial resolution with a productivity of 2651 line metres per hour.

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Close Target Reconnaissance

Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making ◽

10.1177/1555343416675077 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 63-80 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Tal Oron-Gilad ◽

Yisrael Parmet

Keyword(s):

Performance Metrics ◽

Display Device ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicle ◽

Ground Vehicle ◽

Decision Cycle ◽

Urban Terrain ◽

Improvised Explosive ◽

Explosive Devices ◽

Vehicle Sensor ◽

Experimental Group

The focus of the current study was on how the dismounted soldiers’ decision cycle is affected by the use of a display device for utilizing intelligence from an unmanned ground vehicle during a patrol mission. Via a handheld monocular display, participants received a route map and sensor imagery from the vehicle that was ~20–50 m ahead. Twenty-two male participants were divided into two groups, with or without the sensor imagery. Each participant navigated for 2 km in a military urban terrain training facility, while encountering civilians, moving and stationary suspects, and improvised explosive devices. The OODA loop (observe–orient–decide–act) framework was used to examine soldiers’ decisions. The experimental group was slower to respond to threats and to orient. They also reported higher workload, more difficulties in allocating their attention to the environment, and more frustration. These can be partially attributed to the novelty of the technological capability, but also to its implementation in the study. The breakdown of performance metrics into the OODA loop components enabled analysis of the major difficulties in the decision-making process. This evaluation highlights the need for new roles in combat-team setups and for additional training when unmanned vehicle sensor imagery is introduced.

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Coverage path planning for a flock of aerial vehicles to support autonomous rovers through traversability analysis

ACTA IMEKO ◽

10.21014/acta_imeko.v8i4.680 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 9 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Dario Calogero Guastella ◽

Luciano Cantelli ◽

Domenico Longo ◽

Carmelo Donato Melita ◽

Giovanni Muscato

Keyword(s):

Path Planning ◽

Autonomous Navigation ◽

Complete Solution ◽

Volcanic Eruptions ◽

Aerial Imagery ◽

Unmanned Ground Vehicle ◽

Ground Vehicles ◽

Ground Vehicle ◽

Coverage Path Planning ◽

Definition Of

In rough terrains, such as landslides or volcanic eruptions, it is extremely complex to plan safe trajectories for an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), since both robot stability and path execution feasibility must be guaranteed. In this paper, we present a complete solution for the autonomous navigation of ground vehicles in the mentioned scenarios. The proposed solution integrates three different aspects. The first is the coverage path planning for the definition of UAV trajectories for aerial imagery acquisition. The collected images are used for the photogrammetric reconstruction of the considered area. The second aspect is the adoption of a flock of UAVs to implement the coverage in a parallel way. In fact, when non-coverable zones are present, decomposition of the whole area to survey is performed. A solution to assign the different regions among the flying vehicles composing the team is presented. The last aspect is the path planning of the ground vehicle by means of a traversability analysis performed on the terrain 3D model. The computed paths are optimal in terms of the difficulty of moving across the rough terrain. The results of each step within the overall approach are shown.

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