scholarly journals Scalable information-theoretic path planning for a rover-helicopter team in uncertain environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 172988142199958
Author(s):  
Larkin Folsom ◽  
Masahiro Ono ◽  
Kyohei Otsu ◽  
Hyoshin Park

Mission-critical exploration of uncertain environments requires reliable and robust mechanisms for achieving information gain. Typical measures of information gain such as Shannon entropy and KL divergence are unable to distinguish between different bimodal probability distributions or introduce bias toward one mode of a bimodal probability distribution. The use of a standard deviation (SD) metric reduces bias while retaining the ability to distinguish between higher and lower risk distributions. Areas of high SD can be safely explored through observation with an autonomous Mars Helicopter allowing safer and faster path plans for ground-based rovers. First, this study presents a single-agent information-theoretic utility-based path planning method for a highly correlated uncertain environment. Then, an information-theoretic two-stage multiagent rapidly exploring random tree framework is presented, which guides Mars helicopter through regions of high SD to reduce uncertainty for the rover. In a Monte Carlo simulation, we compare our information-theoretic framework with a rover-only approach and a naive approach, in which the helicopter scouts ahead of the rover along its planned path. Finally, the model is demonstrated in a case study on the Jezero region of Mars. Results show that the information-theoretic helicopter improves the travel time for the rover on average when compared with the rover alone or with the helicopter scouting ahead along the rover’s initially planned route.

1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
A. J. Jakeman ◽  
P. G. Whitehead ◽  
A. Robson ◽  
J. A. Taylor ◽  
J. Bai

The paper illustrates analysis of the assumptions of the statistical component of a hybrid modelling approach for predicting environmental extremes. This shows how to assess the applicability of the approach to water quality problems. The analysis involves data on stream acidity from the Birkenes catchment in Norway. The modelling approach is hybrid in that it uses: (1) a deterministic or process-based description to simulate (non-stationary) long term trend values of environmental variables, and (2) probability distributions which are superimposed on the trend values to characterise the frequency of shorter term concentrations. This permits assessment of management strategies and of sensitivity to climate variables by adjusting the values of major forcing variables in the trend model. Knowledge of the variability about the trend is provided by: (a) identification of an appropriate parametric form of the probability density function (pdf) of the environmental attribute (e.g. stream acidity variables) whose extremes are of interest, and (b) estimation of pdf parameters using the output of the trend model.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 761
Author(s):  
Liang Zhang ◽  
Junmin Mou ◽  
Pengfei Chen ◽  
Mengxia Li

In this research, a hybrid approach for path planning of autonomous ships that generates both global and local paths, respectively, is proposed. The global path is obtained via an improved artificial potential field (APF) method, which makes up for the shortcoming that the typical APF method easily falls into a local minimum. A modified velocity obstacle (VO) method that incorporates the closest point of approach (CPA) model and the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS), based on the typical VO method, can be used to get the local path. The contribution of this research is two-fold: (1) improvement of the typical APF and VO methods, making up for previous shortcomings, and integrated COLREGS rules and good seamanship, making the paths obtained more in line with navigation practice; (2) the research included global and local path planning, considering both the safety and maneuverability of the ship in the process of avoiding collision, and studied the whole process of avoiding collision in a relatively entirely way. A case study was then conducted to test the proposed approach in different situations. The results indicate that the proposed approach can find both global and local paths to avoid the target ship.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Lei Jinyu ◽  
Liu Lei ◽  
Chu Xiumin ◽  
He Wei ◽  
Liu Xinglong ◽  
...  

Abstract The ship safety domain plays a significant role in collision risk assessment. However, few studies take the practical considerations of implementing this method in the vicinity of bridge-waters into account. Therefore, historical automatic identification system data is utilised to construct and analyse ship domains considering ship–ship and ship–bridge collisions. A method for determining the closest boundary is proposed, and the boundary of the ship domain is fitted by the least squares method. The ship domains near bridge-waters are constructed as ellipse models, the characteristics of which are discussed. Novel fuzzy quaternion ship domain models are established respectively for inland ships and bridge piers, which would assist in the construction of a risk quantification model and the calculation of a grid ship collision index. A case study is carried out on the multi-bridge waterway of the Yangtze River in Wuhan, China. The results show that the size of the ship domain is highly correlated with the ship's speed and length, and analysis of collision risk can reflect the real situation near bridge-waters, which is helpful to demonstrate the application of the ship domain in quantifying the collision risk and to characterise the collision risk distribution near bridge-waters.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Uriel Cohen Priva ◽  
T. Florian Jaeger

AbstractIt has long been noted that language production seems to reflect a correlation between message redundancy and signal reduction. More frequent words and contextually predictable instances of words, for example, tend to be produced with shorter and less clear signals. The same tendency is observed in the language code (e.g. the phonological lexicon), where more frequent words and words that are typically contextually predictable tend to have fewer segments or syllables. Average predictability in context (informativity) also seems to be an important factor in understanding phonological alternations. What has received little attention so far is the relation between various information-theoretic indices – such as frequency, contextual predictability, and informativity. Although each of these indices has been associated with different theories about the source of the redundancy-reduction link, different indices tend to be highly correlated in natural language, making it difficult to tease apart their effects. We present a computational approach to this problem. We assess the correlations between frequency, predictability, and informativity, and assess when these correlations are likely to create spurious (null or non-null) effects depending on, for example, the amount of data available to the researcher.


Entropy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hector Zenil ◽  
Narsis Kiani ◽  
Jesper Tegnér

We introduce a definition of algorithmic symmetry in the context of geometric and spatial complexity able to capture mathematical aspects of different objects using as a case study polyominoes and polyhedral graphs. We review, study and apply a method for approximating the algorithmic complexity (also known as Kolmogorov–Chaitin complexity) of graphs and networks based on the concept of Algorithmic Probability (AP). AP is a concept (and method) capable of recursively enumerate all properties of computable (causal) nature beyond statistical regularities. We explore the connections of algorithmic complexity—both theoretical and numerical—with geometric properties mainly symmetry and topology from an (algorithmic) information-theoretic perspective. We show that approximations to algorithmic complexity by lossless compression and an Algorithmic Probability-based method can characterize spatial, geometric, symmetric and topological properties of mathematical objects and graphs.


Author(s):  
Shuai Guo ◽  
Tao Song ◽  
Fengfeng (Jeff) Xi ◽  
Richard Phillip Mohamed

A method is presented for tip-over stability analysis of a wheeled mobile manipulator. A wheeled mobile manipulator may tip over resulting from its operation. In this study, first a Newton–Euler formulation is applied to formulate the manipulator’s reaction forces and moments exerted onto the mobile platform. Tip-over criterion is derived to judge the system stability. Three load and motion analyses are carried on. The first static load deals with links and payload to show the effect of the horizontal position of the system’s center of gravity (CG). The second and third are the inertial forces resulting from joint speeds and accelerations, respectively. Case study is path planning with tip-over criterion result which can make the system stable along the path. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Author(s):  
Gayathri Rajendran ◽  
Uma Vijayasundaram

Robotics has become a rapidly emerging branch of science, addressing the needs of humankind by way of advanced technique, like artificial intelligence (AI). This chapter gives detailed explanation about the background knowledge required in implementing the software robots. This chapter has an in-depth explanation about different types of software robots with respect to different applications. This chapter would also highlight some of the important contributions made in this field. Path planning algorithms are required for performing robot navigation efficiently. This chapter discusses several robot path planning algorithms which help in utilizing the domain knowledge, avoiding the possible obstacles, and successfully accomplishing the tasks in lesser computational time. This chapter would also provide a case study on robot navigation data and explain the significant of machine learning algorithms in decision making. This chapter would also discuss some of the potential simulators used in implementing software robots.


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