Autonomous Control Systems And Vehicles

The International Conference on Intelligent Unmanned Systems 2011 was organized by the International Society of Intelligent Unmanned Systems and locally by the Center for Bio-Micro Robotics Research at Chiba University, Japan. The event was the 7th conference continuing from previous conferences held in Seoul, Korea (2005, 2006), Bali, Indonesia (2007), Nanjing, China (2008), Jeju, Korea (2009), and Bali, Indonesia (2010). ICIUS 2011 focused on both theory and application, primarily covering the topics of robotics, autonomous vehicles, intelligent unmanned technologies, and biomimetics. We invited seven keynote speakers who dealt with related state-of-the-art technologies including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and micro air vehicles (MAVs), flapping wings (FWs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), underwater vehicles (UVs), bio-inspired robotics, advanced control, and intelligent systems, among others. This book is a collection of excellent papers that were updated after presentation at ICIUS2011. All papers that form the chapters of this book were reviewed and revised from the perspective of advanced relevant technologies in the field. The aim of this book is to stimulate interactions among researchers active in the areas pertinent to intelligent unmanned systems.

This edited volume includes thoroughly collected on sensing and control for autonomous vehicles. Guidance, navigation and motion control systems for autonomous vehicles are increasingly important in land-based, marine and aerial operations. Autonomous underwater vehicles may be used for pipeline inspection, light intervention work, underwater survey and collection of oceanographic/biological data. Autonomous unmanned aerial systems can be used in a large number of applications such as inspection, monitoring, data collection, surveillance, etc. At present, vehicles operate with limited autonomy and a minimum of intelligence. There is a growing interest for cooperative and coordinated multi-vehicle systems, real-time re-planning, robust autonomous navigation systems and robust autonomous control of vehicles. Unmanned vehicles with high levels of autonomy may be used for safe and efficient collection of environmental data, for assimilation of climate and environmental models and to complement global satellite systems. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of control theory, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being increasingly used in different applications in both military and civilian domains. These applications include surveillance, reconnaissance, remote sensing, target acquisition, border patrol, infrastructure monitoring, aerial imaging, industrial inspection, and emergency medical aid. Vehicles that can be considered autonomous must be able to make decisions and react to events without direct intervention by humans. Although some UAVs are able to perform increasingly complex autonomous manoeuvres, most UAVs are not fully autonomous; instead, they are mostly operated remotely by humans. To make UAVs fully autonomous, many technological and algorithmic developments are still required. For instance, UAVs will need to improve their sensing of obstacles and subsequent avoidance. This becomes particularly important as autonomous UAVs start to operate in civilian airspaces that are occupied by other aircraft. The aim of this volume is to bring together the work of leading researchers and practitioners in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles with a common interest in their autonomy. The contributions that are part of this volume present key challenges associated with the autonomous control of unmanned aerial vehicles, and propose solution methodologies to address such challenges, analyse the proposed methodologies, and evaluate their performance.

In the near future, we will witness vehicles with the ability to provide drivers with several advanced safety and performance assistance features. Autonomous technology in ground vehicles will afford us capabilities like intersection collision warning, lane change warning, backup parking, parallel parking aids, and bus precision parking. Providing you with a practical understanding of this technology area, this innovative resource focuses on basic autonomous control and feedback for stopping and steering ground vehicles.Covering sensors, estimation, and sensor fusion to percept the vehicle motion and surrounding objects, this unique book explains the key aspects that makes autonomous vehicle behavior possible. Moreover, you find detailed examples of fusion and Kalman filtering. From maps, path planning, and obstacle avoidance scenarios...to cooperative mobility among autonomous vehicles, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, this forward-looking book presents the most critical topics in the field today.

Stability theory has allowed us to study both qualitative and quantitative properties of dynamical systems, and control theory has played a key role in designing numerous systems. Contemporary sensing and communication n- works enable collection and subscription of geographically-distributed inf- mation and such information can be used to enhance signi?cantly the perf- manceofmanyofexisting systems. Throughasharedsensing/communication network,heterogeneoussystemscannowbecontrolledtooperaterobustlyand autonomously; cooperative control is to make the systems act as one group and exhibit certain cooperative behavior, and it must be pliable to physical and environmental constraints as well as be robust to intermittency, latency and changing patterns of the information ?ow in the network. This book attempts to provide a detailed coverage on the tools of and the results on analyzing and synthesizing cooperative systems. Dynamical systems under consideration can be either continuous-time or discrete-time, either linear or non-linear, and either unconstrained or constrained. Technical contents of the book are divided into three parts. The ?rst part consists of Chapters 1, 2, and 4. Chapter 1 provides an overview of coope- tive behaviors, kinematical and dynamical modeling approaches, and typical vehicle models. Chapter 2 contains a review of standard analysis and design tools in both linear control theory and non-linear control theory. Chapter 4 is a focused treatment of non-negativematrices and their properties,multipli- tive sequence convergence of non-negative and row-stochastic matrices, and the presence of these matrices and sequences in linear cooperative systems.

Autonomous robot vehicles are vehicles capable of intelligent motion and action without requiring either a guide or teleoperator control. The recent surge of interest in this subject will grow even grow further as their potential applications increase. Autonomous vehicles are currently being studied for use as reconnaissance/exploratory vehicles for planetary exploration, undersea, land and air environments, remote repair and maintenance, material handling systems for offices and factories, and even intelligent wheelchairs for the disabled. This reference is the first to deal directly with the unique and fundamental problems and recent progress associated with autonomous vehicles. The editors have assembled and combined significant material from a multitude of sources, and, in effect, now conviniently provide a coherent organization to a previously scattered and ill-defined field.

Robotic marine vessels can be used for a wide range of purposes, including defence, marine science, offshore energy and hydrographic surveys, and environmental surveys and protection. Such vessels need to meet a variety of criteria: they must be able to operate in salt water, and to communicate and be controlled over large distances, even when submerged or in inclement weather. Further challenges include 3D navigation of individual vehicles, groups or squadrons. This book covers the current state of research in navigation, modelling and control of marine autonomous vehicles, and deals with various related topics, including collision avoidance, communication, and a range of applications. It provides valuable insights for an audience of researchers, academics and postgraduate students interested in autonomous marine vessels, robotics, and electrical and automobile engineering.

This book is the first technical overview of autonomous vehicles written for a general computing and engineering audience. The authors share their practical experiences of creating autonomous vehicle systems. These systems are complex, consisting of three major subsystems: (1) algorithms for localization, perception, and planning and control; (2) client systems, such as the robotics operating system and hardware platform; and (3) the cloud platform, which includes data storage, simulation, high-definition (HD) mapping, and deep learning model training. The algorithm subsystem extracts meaningful information from sensor raw data to understand its environment and make decisions about its actions. The client subsystem integrates these algorithms to meet real-time and reliability requirements. The cloud platform provides offline computing and storage capabilities for autonomous vehicles. Using the cloud platform, we are able to test new algorithms and update the HD map—plus, train better recognition, tracking, and decision models. This book consists of nine chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of autonomous vehicle systems; Chapter 2 focuses on localization technologies; Chapter 3 discusses traditional techniques used for perception; Chapter 4 discusses deep learning based techniques for perception; Chapter 5 introduces the planning and control sub-system, especially prediction and routing technologies; Chapter 6 focuses on motion planning and feedback control of the planning and control subsystem; Chapter 7 introduces reinforcement learning-based planning and control; Chapter 8 delves into the details of client systems design; and Chapter 9 provides the details of cloud platforms for autonomous driving. This book should be useful to students, researchers, and practitioners alike. Whether you are an undergraduate or a graduate student interested in autonomous driving, you will find herein a comprehensive overview of the whole autonomous vehicle technology stack. If you are an autonomous driving practitioner, the many practical techniques introduced in this book will be of interest to you. Researchers will also find plenty of references for an effective, deeper exploration of the various technologies.