No Arabic abstract
For many tasks, predictive path-following control can significantly improve the performance and robustness of autonomous robots over traditional trajectory tracking control. It does this by prioritizing closeness to the path over timed progress along the path and by looking ahead to account for changes in the path. We propose a novel predictive path-following approach that couples feedforward linearization with path-based model predictive control. Our approach has a few key advantages. By utilizing the differential flatness property, we reduce the path-based model predictive control problem from a nonlinear to a convex optimization problem. Robustness to disturbances is achieved by a dynamic path reference, which adjusts its speed based on the robots progress. We also account for key system constraints. We demonstrate these advantages in experiment on a quadrotor. We show improved performance over a baseline trajectory tracking controller by keeping the quadrotor closer to the desired path under nominal conditions, with an initial offset and under a wind disturbance.
In this article we show how the model predictive path following controller allows robotic manipulators to stop at obstructions in a way that model predictive trajectory tracking controllers cannot. We present both controllers as applied to robotic manipulators, simulations for a two-link manipulator using an interior point solver, consider discretization of the optimal control problem using collocation or Runge-Kutta, and discuss the real-time viability of our implementation of the model predictive path following controller.
The problem of constrained coverage path planning involves a robot trying to cover maximum area of an environment under some constraints that appear as obstacles in the map. Out of the several coverage path planning methods, we consider augmenting the linear sweep-based coverage method to achieve minimum energy/ time optimality along with maximum area coverage. In addition, we also study the effects of variation of different parameters on the performance of the modified method.
It is essential in many applications to impose a scalable coordinated motion control on a large group of mobile robots, which is efficient in tasks requiring repetitive execution, such as environmental monitoring. In this paper, we design a guiding vector field to guide multiple robots to follow possibly different desired paths while coordinating their motions. The vector field uses a path parameter as a virtual coordinate that is communicated among neighboring robots. Then, the virtual coordinate is utilized to control the relative parametric displacement between robots along the paths. This enables us to design a saturated control algorithm for a Dubins-car-like model. The algorithm is distributed, scalable, and applicable for any smooth paths in an $n$-dimensional configuration space, and global convergence is guaranteed. Simulations with up to fifty robots and outdoor experiments with fixed-wing aircraft validate the theoretical results.
Model predictive control (MPC) is widely used for path tracking of autonomous vehicles due to its ability to handle various types of constraints. However, a considerable predictive error exists because of the error of mathematics model or the model linearization. In this paper, we propose a framework combining the MPC with a learning-based error estimator and a feedforward compensator to improve the path tracking accuracy. An extreme learning machine is implemented to estimate the model based predictive error from vehicle state feedback information. Offline training data is collected from a vehicle controlled by a model-defective regular MPC for path tracking in several working conditions, respectively. The data include vehicle state and the spatial error between the current actual position and the corresponding predictive position. According to the estimated predictive error, we then design a PID-based feedforward compensator. Simulation results via Carsim show the estimation accuracy of the predictive error and the effectiveness of the proposed framework for path tracking of an autonomous vehicle.
This paper proposes a novel framework for addressing the challenge of autonomous overtaking and obstacle avoidance, which incorporates the overtaking path planning into Gaussian Process-based model predictive control (GPMPC). Compared with the conventional control strategies, this approach has two main advantages. Firstly, combining Gaussian Process (GP) regression with a nominal model allows for learning from model mismatch and unmodeled dynamics, which enhances a simple model and delivers significantly better results. Due to the approximation for propagating uncertainties, we can furthermore satisfy the constraints and thereby safety of the vehicle is ensured. Secondly, we convert the geometric relationship between the ego vehicle and other obstacle vehicles into the constraints. Without relying on a higherlevel path planner, this approach substantially reduces the computational burden. In addition, we transform the state constraints under the model predictive control (MPC) framework into a soft constraint and incorporate it as relaxed barrier function into the cost function, which makes the optimizer more efficient. Simulation results reveal the usefulness of the proposed approach.