Dynamic A^*path finding algorithm and 3D lidar based obstacle avoidance strategy for autonomous vehicles

This paper presents a novel dynamic A^*path finding algorithm and 3D lidar based local obstacle avoidance strategy for an autonomous vehicle.3D point cloud data is collected and analyzed in real time.Local obstacles are detected online and a 2D local obstacle grid map is constructed at 10 Hz/s.The A^*path finding algorithm is employed to generate a local path in this local obstacle grid map by considering both the target position and obstacles.The vehicle avoids obstacles under the guidance of the generated local path.Experiment results have shown the effectiveness of the obstacle avoidance navigation algorithm proposed.

Terrain based co-operative UAV mapping of complex obstacles using 2-D splinegon

Purpose-This paper aims to describe a recently proposed algorithm in terrain-based cooperative UAV mapping of the unknown complex obstacle in a stationary environment where the complex obstacles are represented as curved in nature.It also aims to use an extended Kalman filter(EKF)to estimate the fused position of the UAVs and to apply the 2-D splinegon technique to build the map of the complex shaped obstacles.The path of the UAVs are dictated by the Dubins path planning algorithm.The focus is to achieve a guaranteed performance of sensor based mapping of the uncertain environments using multiple UAVs.Design/methodology/approach–An extended Kalman filter is used to estimate the position of the UAVs,and the 2-D splinegon technique is used to build the map of the complex obstacle where the path of the UAVs are dictated by the Dubins path planning algorithm.Findings-The guaranteed performance is quantified by explicit bounds of the position estimate of the multiple UAVs for mapping of the complex obstacles using 2-D splinegon technique.This is a newly proposed algorithm,the most efficient and a robust way in terrain based mapping of the complex obstacles.The proposed method can provide mathematically provable and performance guarantees that are achievable in practice.Originality/value-The paper describes the main contribution in mapping the complex shaped curvilinear objects using the 2-D splinegon technique.This is a new approach where the fused EKF estimated positions are used with the limited number of sensors’measurements in building the map of the complex obstacles.

Obstacle avoidance for a hexapod robot in unknown environment

Obstacle avoidance is quite an important issue in the field of legged robotic applications, such as rescuing and detecting in complicated environment. Most related researchers focused on the legged robot’s gait generation after ssuming that obstacles have been detected and the walking path has been given. In this paper we propose and validate a novel obstacle avoidance framework for a six-legged walking robot Hexapod-III in unknown environment. Throughout the paper we highlight three themes: (1) The terrain map modeling and the obstacle detection; (2) the obstacle avoidance path planning method; (3) motion planning for the legged robot. Concretely, a novel geometric feature grid map (GFGM) is proposed to describe the terrain. Based on the GFGM, the obstacle detection algorithm is presented. Then the concepts of virtual obstacles and safe conversion pose are introduced. Virtual obstacles restrict the robot to walk on the detection terrain. A safe path based on Bezier curves, passing through safe conversion poses, is obtained by minimizing a penalty function taking into account the path length subjected to obstacle avoidance. Thirdly, motion planning for the legged robot to walk along the generated path is discussed in detail. At last, we apply the proposed framework to the Hexapod-III robot. The experimental result shows that our methodology allows the robot to walk safely without encountering with any obstacles in unknown environment.