Avoiding obstacles by using a proximity infrared sensor skin

Placement and wiring of vast amount of sensor elements on the 3-dimensionally configured robot sur-face to form soft sensor skin is very difficult with the traditional technology. In this paper we propose a new method to realize such a skin.By implanting infrared sensors array in an elastic body, we obtain an elastic and tough sensor skin that can be shaped freely.The developed sensor skin is a large-area, flexi-ble array of infrared sensors with data processing capabilities.Depending on the skin electronics, it en-dows its carrier with an ability to sense its surroundings.The structure, the method of infrared sensor sig-nal processing, and basic experiments of sensor skin are presented. The validity of the infrared sensor skin is investigated by preliminary obstacle avoidance trial.

Multi-Robot Collaborative Hunting in Cluttered Environments With Obstacle-Avoiding Voronoi Cells

This work proposes an online collaborative hunting strategy for multi-robot systems based on obstacle-avoiding Voronoi cells in a complex dynamic environment. This involves firstly designing the construction method using a support vector machine(SVM) based on the definition of buffered Voronoi cells(BVCs). Based on the safe collision-free region of the robots, the boundary weights between the robots and the obstacles are dynamically updated such that the robots are tangent to the buffered Voronoi safety areas without intersecting with the obstacles. Then, the robots are controlled to move within their own buffered Voronoi safety area to achieve collision-avoidance with other robots and obstacles. The next step involves proposing a hunting method that optimizes collaboration between the pursuers and evaders. Some hunting points are generated and distributed evenly around a circle. Next, the pursuers are assigned to match the optimal points based on the Hungarian algorithm.Then, a hunting controller is designed to improve the containment capability and minimize containment time based on collision risk. Finally, simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed cooperative hunting method is more competitive in terms of time and travel distance.

Path-Following Control With Obstacle Avoidance of Autonomous Surface Vehicles Subject to Actuator Faults

This paper investigates the path-following control problem with obstacle avoidance of autonomous surface vehicles in the presence of actuator faults,uncertainty and external disturbances.Autonomous surface vehicles inevitably suffer from actuator faults in complex sea environments,which may cause existing obstacle avoidance strategies to fail.To reduce the influence of actuator faults,an improved artificial potential function is constructed by introducing the lower bound of actuator efficiency factors.The nonlinear state observer,which only depends on measurable position information of the autonomous surface vehicle,is used to address uncertainties and external disturbances.By using a backstepping technique and adaptive mechanism,a path-following control strategy with obstacle avoidance and fault tolerance is designed which can ensure that the tracking errors converge to a small neighborhood of zero.Compared with existing results,the proposed control strategy has the capability of obstacle avoidance and fault tolerance simultaneously.Finally,the comparison results through simulations are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Research on Anthropomorphic Obstacle Avoidance Trajectory Planning for Adaptive Driving Scenarios Based on Inverse Reinforcement Learning Theory

The forward design of trajectory planning strategies requires preset trajectory optimization functions,resulting in poor adaptability of the strategy and an inability to accurately generate obstacle avoidance trajectories that conform to real driver behavior habits.In addition,owing to the strong time-varying dynamic characteristics of obstacle avoidance scenarios,it is necessary to design numerous trajectory optimization functions and adjust the corresponding parameters.Therefore,an anthropomorphic obstacle-avoidance trajectory planning strategy for adaptive driving scenarios is proposed.First,numerous expert-demonstrated trajectories are extracted from the HighD natural driving dataset.Subsequently,a trajectory expectation feature-matching algorithm is proposed that uses maximum entropy inverse reinforcement learning theory to learn the extracted expert-demonstrated trajectories and achieve automatic acquisition of the optimization function of the expert-demonstrated trajectory.Furthermore,a mapping model is constructed by combining the key driving scenario information that affects vehicle obstacle avoidance with the weight of the optimization function,and an anthropomorphic obstacle avoidance trajectory planning strategy for adaptive driving scenarios is proposed.Finally,the proposed strategy is verified based on real driving scenarios.The results show that the strategy can adjust the weight distribution of the trajectory optimization function in real time according to the“emergency degree”of obstacle avoidance and the state of the vehicle.Moreover,this strategy can generate anthropomorphic trajectories that are similar to expert-demonstrated trajectories,effectively improving the adaptability and acceptability of trajectories in driving scenarios.

A Lightweight UAV Visual Obstacle Avoidance Algorithm Based on Improved YOLOv8

The importance of unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)obstacle avoidance algorithms lies in their ability to ensure flight safety and collision avoidance,thereby protecting people and property.We propose UAD-YOLOv8,a lightweight YOLOv8-based obstacle detection algorithm optimized for UAV obstacle avoidance.The algorithm enhances the detection capability for small and irregular obstacles by removing the P5 feature layer and introducing deformable convolution v2(DCNv2)to optimize the cross stage partial bottleneck with 2 convolutions and fusion(C2f)module.Additionally,it reduces the model’s parameter count and computational load by constructing the unite ghost and depth-wise separable convolution(UGDConv)series of lightweight convolutions and a lightweight detection head.Based on this,we designed a visual obstacle avoidance algorithm that can improve the obstacle avoidance performance of UAVs in different environments.In particular,we propose an adaptive distance detection algorithm based on obstacle attributes to solve the ranging problem for multiple types and irregular obstacles to further enhance the UAV’s obstacle avoidance capability.To verify the effectiveness of the algorithm,the UAV obstacle detection(UAD)dataset was created.The experimental results show that UAD-YOLOv8 improves mAP50 by 3.4%and reduces GFLOPs by 34.5%compared to YOLOv8n while reducing the number of parameters by 77.4%and the model size by 73%.These improvements significantly enhance the UAV’s obstacle avoidance performance in complex environments,demonstrating its wide range of applications.

LSDA-APF:A Local Obstacle Avoidance Algorithm for Unmanned Surface Vehicles Based on 5G Communication Environment

In view of the complex marine environment of navigation,especially in the case of multiple static and dynamic obstacles,the traditional obstacle avoidance algorithms applied to unmanned surface vehicles(USV)are prone to fall into the trap of local optimization.Therefore,this paper proposes an improved artificial potential field(APF)algorithm,which uses 5G communication technology to communicate between the USV and the control center.The algorithm introduces the USV discrimination mechanism to avoid the USV falling into local optimization when the USV encounter different obstacles in different scenarios.Considering the various scenarios between the USV and other dynamic obstacles such as vessels in the process of performing tasks,the algorithm introduces the concept of dynamic artificial potential field.For the multiple obstacles encountered in the process of USV sailing,based on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea(COLREGS),the USV determines whether the next step will fall into local optimization through the discriminationmechanism.The local potential field of the USV will dynamically adjust,and the reverse virtual gravitational potential field will be added to prevent it from falling into the local optimization and avoid collisions.The objective function and cost function are designed at the same time,so that the USV can smoothly switch between the global path and the local obstacle avoidance.The simulation results show that the improved APF algorithm proposed in this paper can successfully avoid various obstacles in the complex marine environment,and take navigation time and economic cost into account.

Avoiding Non-Manhattan Obstacles Based on Projection of Spatial Corners in Indoor Environment

Monocular vision-based navigation is a considerable ability for a home mobile robot. However, due to diverse disturbances, helping robots avoid obstacles, especially nonManhattan obstacles, remains a big challenge. In indoor environments, there are many spatial right-corners that are projected into two dimensional projections with special geometric configurations. These projections, which consist of three lines,might enable us to estimate their position and orientation in 3 D scenes. In this paper, we present a method for home robots to avoid non-Manhattan obstacles in indoor environments from a monocular camera. The approach first detects non-Manhattan obstacles. Through analyzing geometric features and constraints,it is possible to estimate posture differences between orientation of the robot and non-Manhattan obstacles. Finally according to the convergence of posture differences, the robot can adjust its orientation to keep pace with the pose of detected non-Manhattan obstacles, making it possible avoid these obstacles by itself. Based on geometric inferences, the proposed approach requires no prior training or any knowledge of the camera’s internal parameters,making it practical for robots navigation. Furthermore, the method is robust to errors in calibration and image noise. We compared the errors from corners of estimated non-Manhattan obstacles against the ground truth. Furthermore, we evaluate the validity of convergence of differences between the robot orientation and the posture of non-Manhattan obstacles. The experimental results showed that our method is capable of avoiding non-Manhattan obstacles, meeting the requirements for indoor robot navigation.

Improved RRT^(∗)Algorithm for Automatic Charging Robot Obstacle Avoidance Path Planning in Complex Environments

A new and improved RRT∗algorithm has been developed to address the low efficiency of obstacle avoidance planning and long path distances in the electric vehicle automatic charging robot arm.This algorithm enables the robot to avoid obstacles,find the optimal path,and complete automatic charging docking.It maintains the global completeness and path optimality of the RRT algorithmwhile also improving the iteration speed and quality of generated paths in both 2D and 3D path planning.After finding the optimal path,the B-sample curve is used to optimize the rough path to create a smoother and more optimal path.In comparison experiments,the new algorithmyielded reductions of 35.5%,29.2%,and 11.7%in search time and 22.8%,19.2%,and 9%in path length for the 3D environment.Finally,experimental validation of the automatic charging of electric vehicles was conducted to further verify the effectiveness of the algorithm.The simulation experimental validation was carried out by kinematic modeling and building an experimental platform.The error between the experimental results and the simulation results is within 10%.The experimental results show the effectiveness and practicality of the algorithm.

A Novel Obstacle Avoidance Consensus Control for Multi-AUV Formation System

In this paper, the fixed-time event-triggered obstacle avoidance consensus control for a multi-AUV time-varying formation system in a 3D environment is presented by using an improved artificial potential field and leader-follower strategy(IAPF-LF). Firstly, the proposed fixed-time control can achieve the desired multi-AUV formation within a fixed settling time in any initial system state. Secondly, an event-triggered communication strategy is developed to govern the communication among AUVs, and the communication energy consumption can be decremented. The time-varying formation obstacle avoidance control algorithm based on IAPF-LF is designed to avoid static and dynamic obstacles, the desired formation is maintained in the presence of external disturbances, and there is no Zeno behavior under the fixed-time event-triggered consensus control strategy.The stability of the system is proved by the Lyapunov function and inequality scaling. Finally, simulation examples and water pool experiments are reported to verify the performance of the proposed theoretical algorithms.

Finite Element Simulation Analysis of a Novel 3D-FRSPA for Crawling Locomotion

A novel three-dimensional-fiber reinforced soft pneumatic actuator(3D-FRSPA)inspired by crab claw and human hand structure that can bend and deform independently in each segment is proposed.It has an omni-directional bending configuration,and the fibers twined symmetrically on both sides to improve the bending performance of FRSPA.In this paper,the static and kinematic analysis of 3D-FRSPA are carried out in detail.The effects of fiber,pneumatic chamber and segment length,and circular air chamber radius of 3D-FRSPA on the mechanical performance of the actuator are discussed,respectively.The soft mobile robot composed of 3D-FRSPA has the ability to crawl.Finally,the crawling processes of the soft mobile robot on different road conditions are studied,respectively,and the motion mechanism of the mobile actuator is shown.The numerical results show that the soft mobile robots have a good comprehensive performance,which verifies the correctness of the proposedmodel.This work shows that the proposed structures have great potential in complex road conditions,unknown space detection and other operations.

MODELING OF ROBOT MANIPULATOR AND OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE

A robot intelligent path planning system RIPPS is developed, which can be utilized for a robot off line programming tool. The system consists of three parts: geometric modeler, kinematic modeler and path planer. The geometric modeler is used to construct the robot working environment cluttered with obstacles and the robot kinematic modeler to define robot manipulators by the input parameters. Giving robot start and the goal configurations, the path planer can produce a quasi optimal path. By transforming obstacles into the C space to form C obstacles, the path searching is performed in C space. The planning simulations are performed on a SGI workstation, the future research is to implement the planer on a commercial robot manipulators.

A Scalable Adaptive Approach to Multi-Vehicle Formation Control with Obstacle Avoidance

This paper deals with the problem of distributed formation tracking control and obstacle avoidance of multivehicle systems(MVSs)in complex obstacle-laden environments.The MVS under consideration consists of a leader vehicle with an unknown control input and a group of follower vehicles,connected via a directed interaction topology,subject to simultaneous unknown heterogeneous nonlinearities and external disturbances.The central aim is to achieve effective and collisionfree formation tracking control for the nonlinear and uncertain MVS with obstacles encountered in formation maneuvering,while not demanding global information of the interaction topology.Toward this goal,a radial basis function neural network is used to model the unknown nonlinearity of vehicle dynamics in each vehicle and repulsive potentials are employed for obstacle avoidance.Furthermore,a scalable distributed adaptive formation tracking control protocol with a built-in obstacle avoidance mechanism is developed.It is proved that,with the proposed protocol,the resulting formation tracking errors are uniformly ultimately bounded and obstacle collision avoidance is guaranteed.Comprehensive simulation results are elaborated to substantiate the effectiveness and the promising collision avoidance performance of the proposed scalable adaptive formation control approach.

Distributed formation control for a multi-agent system with dynamic and static obstacle avoidances

Formation control and obstacle avoidance for multi-agent systems have attracted more and more attention. In this paper, the problems of formation control and obstacle avoidance are investigated by means of a consensus algorithm. A novel distributed control model is proposed for the multi-agent system to form the anticipated formation as well as achieve obstacle avoidance. Based on the consensus algorithm, a distributed control function consisting of three terms （formation control term, velocity matching term, and obstacle avoidance term） is presented. By establishing a novel formation control matrix, a formation control term is constructed such that the agents can converge to consensus and reach the anticipated formation. A new obstacle avoidance function is developed by using the modified potential field approach to make sure that obstacle avoidance can be achieved whether the obstacle is in a dynamic state or a stationary state. A velocity matching term is also put forward to guarantee that the velocities of all agents converge to the same value. Furthermore, stability of the control model is proven. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control.

Improved Dijkstra Algorithm for Mobile Robot Path Planning and Obstacle Avoidance

Optimal path planning avoiding obstacles is among the most attractive applications of mobile robots(MRs)in both research and education.In this paper,an optimal collision-free algorithm is designed and implemented practically based on an improved Dijkstra algorithm.To achieve this research objectives,first,the MR obstacle-free environment is modeled as a diagraph including nodes,edges and weights.Second,Dijkstra algorithm is used offline to generate the shortest path driving the MR from a starting point to a target point.During its movement,the robot should follow the previously obtained path and stop at each node to test if there is an obstacle between the current node and the immediately following node.For this aim,the MR was equipped with an ultrasonic sensor used as obstacle detector.If an obstacle is found,the MR updates its diagraph by excluding the corresponding node.Then,Dijkstra algorithm runs on the modified diagraph.This procedure is repeated until reaching the target point.To verify the efficiency of the proposed approach,a simulation was carried out on a hand-made MR and an environment including 9 nodes,19 edges and 2 obstacles.The obtained optimal path avoiding obstacles has been transferred into motion control and implemented practically using line tracking sensors.This study has shown that the improved Dijkstra algorithm can efficiently solve optimal path planning in environments including obstacles and that STEAM-based MRs are efficient cost-effective tools to practically implement the designed algorithm.

Obstacle Avoidance and Multitarget Tracking of a Super Redundant Modular Manipulator Based on Bezier Curve and Particle Swarm Optimization

A super redundant serpentine manipulator has slender structure and multiple degrees of freedom.It can travel through narrow spaces and move in complex spaces.This manipulator is composed of many modules that can form different lengths of robot arms for different application sites.The increase in degrees of freedom causes the inverse kinematics of redundant manipulator to be typical and immensely increases the calculation load in the joint space.This paper presents an integrated optimization method to solve the path planning for obstacle avoidance and discrete trajectory tracking of a super redundant manipulator.In this integrated optimization,path planning is established on a Bezier curve,and particle swarm optimization is adopted to adjust the control points of the Bezier curve with the kinematic constraints of manipulator.A feasible obstacle avoidance path is obtained along with a discrete trajectory tracking by using a follow-the-leader strategy.The relative distance between each two discrete path points is limited to reduce the fitting error of the connecting rigid links to the smooth curve.Simulation results show that this integrated optimization method can rapidly search for the appropriate trajectory to guide the manipulator in obtaining the target while achieving obstacle avoidance and meeting joint constraints.The proposed algorithm is suitable for 3D space obstacle avoidance and multitarget path tracking.

Obstacle Avoidance of Flapping⁃Wing Air Vehicles Based on Optical Flow and Fuzzy Control

The flapping-wing air vehicle(FWAV)is a kind of bio-inspired robot whose wings can flap up and down like bird and insect wings.A vision-based obstacle avoidance method for FWAVs is proposed in this paper.First,the Farneback algorithm is used to calculate the optical flow field of the first-view video frames taken by the on-board image transmission camera.Based on the optical flow information,a fuzzy obstacle avoidance controller is then designed to generate the FWAV steering commands.Experimental results show that the proposed obstacle avoidance method can accurately identify obstacles and achieve obstacle avoidance for FWAVs.

Target Tracking and Obstacle Avoidance for Multi-agent Systems

This paper considers the problems of target tracking and obstacle avoidance for multi-agent systems. To solve the problem that multiple agents cannot effectively track the target while avoiding obstacle in dynamic environment, a novel control algorithm based on potential function and behavior rules is proposed. Meanwhile, the interactions among agents are also considered. According to the state whether an agent is within the area of its neighbors＇ influence, two kinds of potential functions are presented. Meanwhile, the distributed control input of each agent is determined by relative velocities as well as relative positions among agents, target and obstacle. The maximum linear speed of the agents is also discussed. Finally, simulation studies are given to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.

Swarm intelligence based dynamic obstacle avoidance for mobile robots under unknown environment using WSN

To solve dynamic obstacle avoidance problems, a novel algorithm was put forward with the advantages of wireless sensor network (WSN). In view of moving velocity and direction of both the obstacles and robots, a mathematic model was built based on the exposure model, exposure direction and critical speeds of sensors. Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm based on bionic swarm intelligence was used for solution of the multi-objective optimization. Energy consumption and topology of the WSN were also discussed. A practical implementation with real WSN and real mobile robots were carried out. In environment with multiple obstacles, the convergence curve of the shortest path length shows that as iterative generation grows, the length of the shortest path decreases and finally reaches a stable and optimal value. Comparisons show that using sensor information fusion can greatly improve the accuracy in comparison with single sensor. The successful path of robots without collision validates the efficiency, stability and accuracy of the proposed algorithm, which is proved to be better than tradition genetic algorithm (GA) for dynamic obstacle avoidance in real time.

Potential-based obstacle avoidance in formation control

Based on the double integrator mathematic model, a new kind of potential function is presented in this paper by referring to the concepts of the electric field; then a new formation control method is proposed, in which the potential functions are used between agent-agent and between agent-obstacle, while state feedback control is applied for the agent and its goal. This strategy makes the whole potential field simpler and helps avoid some local minima. The stability of this combination of potential functions and state feedback control is proven. Some simulations are presented to show the rationality of this control method.

Obstacle avoidance method of three-dimensional obstacle spherical cap

Focusing on obstacle avoidance in three-dimensional space for unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV), the direct obstacle avoidance method in dynamic space based on three-dimensional velocity obstacle spherical cap is proposed, which quantifies the influence of threatening obstacles through velocity obstacle spherical cap parameters. In addition, the obstacle avoidance schemes of any point on the critical curve during the multi-obstacles avoidance are given. Through prediction, the insertion point for the obstacle avoidance can be obtained and the flight path can be replanned. Taking the Pythagorean Hodograph(PH) curve trajectory re-planning as an example, the three-dimensional direct obstacle avoidance method in dynamic space is tested. Simulation results show that the proposed method can realize the online obstacle avoidance trajectory re-planning, which increases the flexibility of obstacle avoidance greatly.