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Quadcopters are increasingly used for applications ranging from hobby to industrial products and services. This paper serves as a tutorial on the design, simulation, implementation, and experimental outdoor testing of digital quadcopter flight controllers, including Explicit Model Predictive Control, Linear Quadratic Regulator, and Proportional Integral Derivative. A quadcopter was flown in an outdoor testing facility and made to track an inclined, circular path at different tangential velocities under ambient wind conditions. Controller performance was evaluated via multiple metrics, such as position tracking error, velocity tracking error, and onboard computation time. Challenges related to the use of computationally limited embedded hardware and flight in an outdoor environment are addressed with proposed solutions.
Complementarity problems, a class of mathematical optimization problems with orthogonality constraints, are widely used in many robotics tasks, such as locomotion and manipulation, due to their ability to model non-smooth phenomena (e.g., contact dynamics). In this paper, we propose a method to analyze the stability of complementarity systems with neural network controllers. First, we introduce a method to represent neural networks with rectified linear unit (ReLU) activations as the solution to a linear complementarity problem. Then, we show that systems with ReLU network controllers have an equivalent linear complementarity system (LCS) description. Using the LCS representation, we turn the stability verification problem into a linear matrix inequality (LMI) feasibility problem. We demonstrate the approach on several examples, including multi-contact problems and friction models with non-unique solutions.
In recent years, the increasing interest in Stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) schemes has highlighted the limitation arising from their inherent computational demand, which has restricted their applicability to slow-dynamics and high-performing systems. To reduce the computational burden, in this paper we extend the probabilistic scaling approach to obtain low-complexity inner approximation of chance-constrained sets. This approach provides probabilistic guarantees at a lower computational cost than other schemes for which the sample complexity depends on the design space dimension. To design candidate simple approximating sets, which approximate the shape of the probabilistic set, we introduce two possibilities: i) fixed-complexity polytopes, and ii) $ell_p$-norm based sets. Once the candidate approximating set is obtained, it is scaled around its center so to enforce the expected probabilistic guarantees. The resulting scaled set is then exploited to enforce constraints in the classical SMPC framework. The computational gain obtained with the proposed approach with respect to the scenario one is demonstrated via simulations, where the objective is the control of a fixed-wing UAV performing a monitoring mission over a sloped vineyard.
In recent times, developments in field of communication and robotics has progressed with leaps and bounds. In addition, the blend of both disciplines has contributed heavily in making human life easier and better. So in this work while making use of both the aforementioned technologies, a procedure for design and implementation of a mobile operated mechanical arm is proposed, that is, the proposed arm will be operated via a cellular device that connects with the receiver mounted on the robotic arm. Moreover, over the duration of a call, if any key is pressed from the cellular device than an indicator indistinct to the key pressed is noticed at the receiver side. This tone represents superimposition of two distinct frequencies and referred to as DTMF (dual tone multi-frequency). Further, the mechanical arm is handled via the DTMF tone. Also, the acquired tone at the receiver is taken into a micro-controller (ATMEGA16) using the DTMF decipher module i.e. MT8870. Further, the decipher module unwinds the DTMF signal into its corresponding two bit representation and then the matched number is transmitted to the micro-controller. The micro-controller is programmed to take an action based on the decoded value. Further, the micro-controller forwards control signals to the motor driver unit to move the arm in forward/backward or multi-directional course. Lastly, the mechanical arm is capable of picking and placing objects while being controlled wirelessly over GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications).
We present a new method for the automated synthesis of digital controllers with formal safety guarantees for systems with nonlinear dynamics, noisy output measurements, and stochastic disturbances. Our method derives digital controllers such that the corresponding closed-loop system, modeled as a sampled-data stochastic control system, satisfies a safety specification with probability above a given threshold. The proposed synthesis method alternates between two steps: generation of a candidate controller pc, and verification of the candidate. pc is found by maximizing a Monte Carlo estimate of the safety probability, and by using a non-validated ODE solver for simulating the system. Such a candidate is therefore sub-optimal but can be generated very rapidly. To rule out unstable candidate controllers, we prove and utilize Lyapunovs indirect method for instability of sampled-data nonlinear systems. In the subsequent verification step, we use a validated solver based on SMT (Satisfiability Modulo Theories) to compute a numerically and statistically valid confidence interval for the safety probability of pc. If the probability so obtained is not above the threshold, we expand the search space for candidates by increasing the controller degree. We evaluate our technique on three case studies: an artificial pancreas model, a powertrain control model, and a quadruple-tank process.
Modern nonlinear control theory seeks to endow systems with properties such as stability and safety, and has been deployed successfully across various domains. Despite this success, model uncertainty remains a significant challenge in ensuring that model-based controllers transfer to real world systems. This paper develops a data-driven approach to robust control synthesis in the presence of model uncertainty using Control Certificate Functions (CCFs), resulting in a convex optimization based controller for achieving properties like stability and safety. An important benefit of our framework is nuanced data-dependent guarantees, which in principle can yield sample-efficient data collection approaches that need not fully determine the input-to-state relationship. This work serves as a starting point for addressing important questions at the intersection of nonlinear control theory and non-parametric learning, both theoretical and in application. We validate the proposed method in simulation with an inverted pendulum in multiple experimental configurations.