Robotics Commons^™

V-Slam And Sensor Fusion For Ground Robots, Ejup Hoxha

Dissertations and Theses

In underground, underwater and indoor environments, a robot has to rely solely on its on-board sensors to sense and understand its surroundings. This is the main reason why SLAM gained the popularity it has today. In recent years, we have seen excellent improvement on accuracy of localization using cameras and combinations of different sensors, especially camera-IMU (VIO) fusion. Incorporating more sensors leads to improvement of accuracy,but also robustness of SLAM. However, while testing SLAM in our ground robots, we have seen a decrease in performance quality when using the same algorithms on flying vehicles.We have an additional sensor for ground …

Adaptive Object Detection For Autonomous Vehicles, Christopher Wolfe

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Autonomous vehicles are gradually entering our daily lives. The goal of fully autonomous commercially available vehicles is becoming closer to reality each day as the contributions from researchers and various institutions are being added to the overall body of knowledge. Object detection is a critical component of an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle and draws extensively on results from many fields such as image processing and statistics. In this thesis, we consider ideas from the study of real-time computing and control systems to present a novel method of real-time adaptive object detection. We present a conceptual framework of the method as …

A Multi-Constraint Predictive Control System With Auxiliary Emergency Controllerfor Autonomous Vehicles, Farhad Partovi Ebrahimpour

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In the last few years, several research groups and companies have worked on developing autonomous vehicles. Among the first automation layers, the safety layer plays a significant role in this field. However, considering safety should not diminish the importance of the efficiency of the vehicle in terms of path tracking with the desired speed. This thesis introduces a multi-constraint predictive control algorithm along with a safety layer to guarantee object avoidance in emergency situations. First, there is a quick review of autonomous cars and their functionalities. In the following, a controller switching mechanism is proposed and designed. It switches the …

Quantitative Performance Assessment Of Lidar-Based Vehicle Contour Estimation Algorithms For Integrated Vehicle Safety Applications, David M. Mothershed

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Many nations and organizations are committing to achieving the goal of `Vision Zero' and eliminate road traffic related deaths around the world. Industry continues to develop integrated safety systems to make vehicles safer, smarter and more capable in safety critical scenarios. Passive safety systems are now focusing on pre-crash deployment of restraint systems to better protect vehicle passengers. Current commonly used bounding box methods for shape estimation of crash partners lack the fidelity required for edge case collision detection and advanced crash modeling. This research presents a novel algorithm for robust and accurate contour estimation of opposing vehicles. The presented …

Application Of Advanced Algorithms And Statistical Techniques For Weed-Plant Discrimination, Saman Akbar Zadeh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Precision agriculture requires automated systems for weed detection as weeds compete with the crop for water, nutrients, and light. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of machine learning methods to classify weeds/crops in agriculture. Statistical methods, support vector machines, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are introduced, investigated and optimized as classifiers to provide high accuracy at high vehicular speed for weed detection.

Initially, Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms are developed for weed-crop discrimination and their accuracies are compared with a conventional data-aggregation method based on the evaluation of discrete Normalised Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVIs) at two different …

Multi-Robot Informative Path Planning In Unknown Environments Through Continuous Region Partitioning, Amitabh Bhattacharya

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research activity is primarily focused to obtain information from an environment with the help of a group of coordinated robots. Each robot is responsible to plan its path independently but the robots, as an overall system, have a common goal of maximum information collection. This domain of research is known as Multi-Robot Informative Path Planning (MIPP). MIPP is very motivating due to its challenging nature and numerous real-world applications. It has shown its presence from semiautomatic applications like robotic search and rescue to fully automatic applications like interplanetary missions.

We consider the NP-Hard problem of MIPP in an unknown …

A Comprehensive And Modular Robotic Control Framework For Model-Less Control Law Development Using Reinforcement Learning For Soft Robotics, Charles Sullivan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Soft robotics is a growing field in robotics research. Heavily inspired by biological systems, these robots are made of softer, non-linear, materials such as elastomers and are actuated using several novel methods, from fluidic actuation channels to shape changing materials such as electro-active polymers. Highly non-linear materials make modeling difficult, and sensors are still an area of active research. These issues have rendered typical control and modeling techniques often inadequate for soft robotics. Reinforcement learning is a branch of machine learning that focuses on model-less control by mapping states to actions that maximize a specific reward signal. Reinforcement learning has …

Tram System Automation For Environmental Spectroscopy And Vegetation Monitoring, Enrique Anguiano Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Spectroscopy is the science of studying the interactions of matter and electromagnetic radiation (EMR). In particular, field spectroscopy takes place in a natural environment with a natural source of EMR. The paper presents progress towards the development and automation of a tram cart system. The new system in development collects high resolution, hyperspectral images and data from a spectrometer. Alternatives for a sensor cover mechanism to provide cover for the sensors mounted while the system is not operating are discussed, analyzing and comparing the benefits and disadvantages. An implementation for a charging station in an environment isolated from the electric …

Asro (Amphibious Spy Robot): Prototipe Robot Amfibi Pengintai Dengan First Person View Dan Sistem Navigasi Berbasis Sensor Kompas, R. Amirur Rajif, Fatchul Arifin

Elinvo (Electronics, Informatics, and Vocational Education)

Robots have an important role in all aspects of life, including the military field. The purpose of making this final project are building hardware and software of robot and to know the performance of robots. The method used in making the final project consists of identifying and analyzing requirements, designing and manufacturing hardware and software, and testing. The result of the performance of ASRO is that, the buoyancy force of the robot is greater than the weight of the object, namely Fa = 22,808 N and W = 15,696 N or Fa> W which makes the robot float while operate …

Kinerja Dari Prototipe Robot Visual Pengumpul Sampah Perairan Dengan Remote Control Menggunakan Telemetri, Faiz Sulistyawan, Sri Waluyanti

Elinvo (Electronics, Informatics, and Vocational Education)

The making of prototype robot waste water collection aims to know the performance itself. The prototype of the Aquatic Waste Collection Robot is designed to float and clean trash in remote controlled waters. The main control drives a series of DC brushless motors to drive while the MG995 servo motor drives a rudder or defender. The device is also equipped with a camera as a medium to see the condition of the robot directly or in real time which will be displayed on the monitor screen. The camera and screen are connected to a telemetry circuit consisting of a transmitter …

Robot Motion Planning In Dynamic Environments, Hao-Tien Lewis Chiang

Computer Science ETDs

Robot motion planning in dynamic environments is critical for many robotic applications, such as self-driving cars, UAVs and service robots operating in changing environments. However, motion planning in dynamic environments is very challenging as this problem has been shown to be NP-Hard and in PSPACE, even in the simplest case. As a result, the lack of safe, efficient planning solutions for real-world robots is one of the biggest obstacles for ubiquitous adoption of robots in everyday life. Specifically, there are four main challenges facing motion planning in dynamic environments: obstacle motion uncertainty, obstacle interaction, complex robot dynamics and noise, and …

Hardware Implementation Of Assistive Technology Robot, Joycephine Li

Publications and Research

SuperHERO is an on-going research project in Computer Engineering Technology department which involves upgrading Heathkit Education Robot (HERO) hardware circuits and features by using modern hardware devices and sensors. The current phase of the project will focus on upgrading the motor drive system hardware as well as implementation and testing of features such as mobile robot obstacle detection and other assistive technologies to help people with disabilities. This involves the reattachment of the robot arm after repairing and updating with 3D printing and using modern hardware and software technology. We observed that the robotic arm has rotary and translation movements …

Self-Driving Toy Car Using Deep Learning, Fahim Ahmed, Suleyman Turac, Mubtasem Ali

Publications and Research

Our research focuses on building a student affordable platform for scale model self-driving cars. The goal of this project is to explore current developments of Open Source hardware and software to build a low-cost platform consisting of the car chassis/framework, sensors, and software for the autopilot. Our research will allow other students with low budget to enter into the world of Deep Learning, self-driving cars, and autonomous cars racing competitions.

How Degrees Of Freedom Affects Sense Of Agency, Akima Connelly, Jungsu Pak, Tian Lan, Uri Maoz

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Can the rubber-hand illusion be extended to a moving robotic arm in different degrees of freedom (DOF), inducing sense of ownership & agency over the arm? We hypothesize that DOF closer to what humans possess will result in a stronger sense of ownership and agency.

Chapman Ambassador Tour Robot, Alexandra Lewandowski, Yanni Parissis, Khiry Carter, Hilary Lee

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Being a student ambassador improves a student's confidence and leadership skills. With an increasing demand for technology skills, our project will display how the ambassador robot can assist student ambassadors while improving upon their efficiency, by discussing information during college campus tours and familiarizing students with robot applications and their technology. The ambassador robot can support students during tours by answering a question about specific knowledge that may have slipped an ambassador's mind. The robot will also be able to create a group-focused atmosphere that will allow ambassadors to have the opportunity to lean on a dependable teammate for specific …

An Approach To Fast Multi-Robot Exploration In Buildings With Inaccessible Spaces, Matt Mcneill, Damian Lyons

Faculty Publications

The rapid exploration of unknown environments is a common application of autonomous multi-robot teams. For some types of exploration missions, a mission designer may possess some rudimentary knowledge about the area to be explored. For example, the dimensions of a building may be known, but not its floor layout or the location of furniture and equipment inside. For this type of mission, the Space- Based Potential Field (SBPF) method is an approach to multirobot exploration which leverages a priori knowledge of area bounds to determine robot motion. Explored areas and obstacles exert a repulsive force, and unexplored areas exert an …

Reasoning From Point Clouds, Joey Wilson

Computer Engineering

Over the past two years, 3D object detection has been a major area of focus across industry and academia. This is primarily due to the difficulty of learning data from point clouds. While camera images are fixed size and can therefore be easily trained on using convolution, point clouds are unstructured series of points in three dimensions. Therefore, there is no fixed number of features, or a structure to run convolution on. Instead, researchers have developed many ways of attempting to learn from this data, however there is no clear consensus on what is the best method, as each has …

Mobile Robot Platform, Sukhman S. Marok

Electrical Engineering

The Mobile Robot Platform is a research and development tool designed for researchers working in the field of robotics. The cost of existing mobile robot platforms can easily be in the thousands of dollars, leading many researchers to choose between spending the time to create their own platform or buying an expensive pre-existing solution. The Mobile Robot Platform proposed combines pre-existing open source software and hardware solutions, along with a strong mechanical base that is capable of navigating on flat surfaces. The robot is designed to have many of the necessary components needed for teleoperation as well as autonomous navigation. …

Involuntary Signal-Based Grounding Of Civilian Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas) In Civilian Airspace, Keith Conley

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the involuntary signal-based grounding of civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in unauthorized air spaces. The technique proposed here will forcibly land unauthorized UAS in a given area in such a way that the UAS will not be harmed, and the pilot cannot stop the landing. The technique will not involuntarily ground authorized drones which will be determined prior to the landing. Unauthorized airspaces include military bases, university campuses, areas affected by a natural disaster, and stadiums for public events. This thesis proposes an early prototype of a hardware-based signal based involuntary grounding technique to handle the problem …

Robot Simulation Analysis, Jacob Miller, Jeremy Evert

Student Research

• Simulate virtual robot for test and analysis

• Analyze SLAM solutions using ROS

• Assemble a functional Turtlebot

• Emphasize projects related to current research trajectories for NASA, and general robotics applications