scholarly journals A State-of-the-Art Analysis of Obstacle Avoidance Methods from the Perspective of an Agricultural Sprayer UAV’s Operation Scenario

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1069
Author(s):  
Shibbir Ahmed ◽  
Baijing Qiu ◽  
Fiaz Ahmad ◽  
Chun-Wei Kong ◽  
Huang Xin
Keyword(s):  
Collision Avoidance ◽  
Obstacle Avoidance ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Crop Monitoring ◽  
Data Intensive ◽  
Structural Details ◽  
Dynamic Operating ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The Internet Of Things

Over the last decade, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have been broadly utilized in various agricultural fields, such as crop management, crop monitoring, seed sowing, and pesticide spraying. Nonetheless, autonomy is still a crucial limitation faced by the Internet of Things (IoT) UAV systems, especially when used as sprayer UAVs, where data needs to be captured and preprocessed for robust real-time obstacle detection and collision avoidance. Moreover, because of the objective and operational difference between general UAVs and sprayer UAVs, not every obstacle detection and collision avoidance method will be sufficient for sprayer UAVs. In this regard, this article seeks to review the most relevant developments on all correlated branches of the obstacle avoidance scenarios for agricultural sprayer UAVs, including a UAV sprayer’s structural details. Furthermore, the most relevant open challenges for current UAV sprayer solutions are enumerated, thus paving the way for future researchers to define a roadmap for devising new-generation, affordable autonomous sprayer UAV solutions. Agricultural UAV sprayers require data-intensive algorithms for the processing of the images acquired, and expertise in the field of autonomous flight is usually needed. The present study concludes that UAV sprayers are still facing obstacle detection challenges due to their dynamic operating and loading conditions.

A Lightweight Architecture for Hardware-Based Security in the Emerging Era of Systems of Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Nico Mexis ◽  
Nikolaos Athanasios Anagnostopoulos ◽  
Shuai Chen ◽  
Jan Bambach ◽  
Tolga Arul ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
System Of Systems ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Systems Of Systems ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Commercial Off The Shelf ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The Internet Of Things

In recent years, a new generation of the Internet of Things (IoT 2.0) is emerging, based on artificial intelligence, the blockchain technology, machine learning, and the constant consolidation of pre-existing systems and subsystems into larger systems. In this work, we construct and examine a proof-of-concept prototype of such a system of systems, which consists of heterogeneous commercial off-the-shelf components, and utilises diverse communication protocols. We recognise the inherent need for lightweight security in this context, and address it by employing a low-cost state-of-the-art security solution. Our solution is based on a novel hardware and software co-engineering paradigm, utilising well-known software-based cryptographic algorithms, in order to maximise the security potential of the hardware security primitive (a Physical Unclonable Function) that is used as a security anchor. The performance of the proposed security solution is evaluated, proving its suitability even for real-time applications. Additionally, the Dolev-Yao attacker model is considered in order to assess the resilience of our solution towards attacks against the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the examined system of systems. In this way, it is confirmed that the proposed solution is able to address the emerging security challenges of the oncoming era of systems of systems.

Robot obstacle avoidance system using deep reinforcement learning

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojun Zhu ◽  
Yinghao Liang ◽  
Hanxu Sun ◽  
Xueqian Wang ◽  
Bin Ren
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Collision Avoidance ◽  
Obstacle Avoidance ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Optimal Path ◽  
Environmental Parameters ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Human Operators

Purpose Most manufacturing plants choose the easy way of completely separating human operators from robots to prevent accidents, but as a result, it dramatically affects the overall quality and speed that is expected from human–robot collaboration. It is not an easy task to ensure human safety when he/she has entered a robot’s workspace, and the unstructured nature of those working environments makes it even harder. The purpose of this paper is to propose a real-time robot collision avoidance method to alleviate this problem. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, a model is trained to learn the direct control commands from the raw depth images through self-supervised reinforcement learning algorithm. To reduce the effect of sample inefficiency and safety during initial training, a virtual reality platform is used to simulate a natural working environment and generate obstacle avoidance data for training. To ensure a smooth transfer to a real robot, the automatic domain randomization technique is used to generate randomly distributed environmental parameters through the obstacle avoidance simulation of virtual robots in the virtual environment, contributing to better performance in the natural environment. Findings The method has been tested in both simulations with a real UR3 robot for several practical applications. The results of this paper indicate that the proposed approach can effectively make the robot safety-aware and learn how to divert its trajectory to avoid accidents with humans within the workspace. Research limitations/implications The method has been tested in both simulations with a real UR3 robot in several practical applications. The results indicate that the proposed approach can effectively make the robot be aware of safety and learn how to change its trajectory to avoid accidents with persons within the workspace. Originality/value This paper provides a novel collision avoidance framework that allows robots to work alongside human operators in unstructured and complex environments. The method uses end-to-end policy training to directly extract the optimal path from the visual inputs for the scene.

scholarly journals A Hands-Free Obstacle Detection and Avoidance System

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 801-804
Author(s):  
M. Abdul-Niby ◽  
M. Alameen ◽  
O. Irscheid ◽  
M. Baidoun ◽  
H. Mourtada
Keyword(s):  
Obstacle Avoidance ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Text To Speech ◽  
Voice Signal ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
The Voice

In this paper, we present a low cost hands-free detection and avoidance system designed to provide mobility assistance for visually impaired people. An ultrasonic sensor is attached to the jacket of the user and detects the obstacles in front. The information obtained is transferred to the user through audio messages and also by a vibration. The range of the detection is user-defined. A text-to-speech module is employed for the voice signal. The proposed obstacle avoidance device is cost effective, easy to use and easily upgraded.

scholarly journals Obstacle Avoidace Robot Using LabView

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
Tasher Ali Sheikh ◽  
Swacheta Dutta ◽  
Smriti Baruah ◽  
Pooja Sharma ◽  
Sahadev Roy
Keyword(s):  
Path Planning ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Collision Avoidance ◽  
Obstacle Avoidance ◽  
Autonomous Robotics ◽  
Continuous Transition ◽  
Heavy Burden ◽  
Avoidance Strategy ◽  
Small Period ◽  
Specific Amount

The concept of path planning and collision avoidance are two of the most common theories applied for designing and developing in advanced autonomous robotics applications. NI LabView makes it possible to implement real-time processor for obstacle avoidance. The obstacle avoidance strategy ensures that the robot whenever senses the obstacle stops without being collided and moves freely when path is free, but sometimes there exists a probability that once the path is found free and the robot starts moving, then within a fraction of milliseconds, the robot again sense the obstacle and it stops. This continuous swing of stop and run within a very small period of time may cause heavy burden on the system leading to malfunctioning of the components of the system. This paper deals with overcoming this drawback in a way that even after the robot calculates the path is free then also it will wait for a specific amount of time before running it. So as to confirm that if again the sensor detects the obstacle within that specified period then robot don’t need to transit its state suddenly thus avoiding continuous transition of run and stop. Thus it reduces the heavy burden on the system.

scholarly journals Quadcopter – Obstacle Detection and Collision Avoidance

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prathamesh Salaskar ◽  
◽  
Saee Paranjpe ◽  
Jagdish Reddy ◽  
Arish Shah
Keyword(s):  
Collision Avoidance ◽  
Obstacle Detection

Introduction to Smart Environments

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Keyword(s):  
Value Added ◽  
Smart Environments ◽  
Smart Environment ◽  
Smart Spaces ◽  
Cooperative Activity ◽  
Computing Environments ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Near Future ◽  
The Internet Of Things

Now the Internet of Things (IoT) is growing fast into a large industry with huge potential economic impact expected in near future. The IoT technology evolves to a substrate for resource interconnection and convergence. The users' needs go beyond the existing web-like services, which do not provide satisfactory coupling and automatic composition when the user tries to solve tasks from her/his everyday life. New generation of services (named “smart services”) emerges. In this chapter, we introduce the problem of effective use of the multitude of IoT-enabled devices and other digital resources that now surround our lives. The devices support and assist human by provision of digital services. This is the key objective of a smart environment. Our focus is on such a particular class of smart environments as smart spaces. This class targets IoT-enabled computing environments, where a smart space is created and then provides an infrastructure for applications to construct and deliver value-added services based on cooperative activity of environment participants, either human or machines.

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