CMU RI Special FRC Seminar: Optimal Rough Terrain Trajectory Generation for Wheeled Mobile Robots

Title: Optimal Rough Terrain Trajectory Generation for Wheeled Mobile Robots

Date: *Tuesday*, April 25, 2006
Time: **3pm** (not Noon)
Location: NSH 1109
Refreshments will be served

Speaker: Thomas Howard, PhD Candidate, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract:
In order to operate competently in any environment, a mobile robot must understand the effects of its own dynamics and of its interactions with the terrain. It is therefore natural to incorporate models of these effects in a trajectory generator which determines the controls necessary to achieve motion between a prescribed set of boundary states. This talk addresses recent work in developing a general algorithm for continuous motion primitive trajectory generation for arbitrary vehicle models on rough three dimensional terrain. The generality of the method derives from linearizing and inverting forward models of propulsion, suspension, and motion to minimize boundary state error and path cost given a parameterized set of controls. The simulation-based approach can accommodate effects such as rough terrain, wheel slip, and predictable vehicle dynamics. We will present this algorithm for local motion planning and discuss applications in planetary rovers and unmanned ground vehicles.

Related Links:

• Terrain-Adaptive Generation of Optimal Continuous Trajectories for Mobile Robots, T. Howard and A. Kelly, Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS '05), September, 2005.
• Trajectory Generation on Rough Terrain Considering Actuator Dynamics, T. Howard and A. Kelly, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Field and Service Robotics (FSR '05), July, 2005.