Hybrid intelligent path planning for articulated rovers in rough terrain (original) (raw)

Fuzzy terrain-based path planning for planetary rovers

This paper presents a fuzzy terrain-based path planning method for planetary rovers operating on rough natural terrain. The focus of this approach is on planning an optimally safe path of minimum traversal cost, which is calculated from linguistic descriptors of terrain traversability. The method incorporates the Traversability Map, a fuzzy map representation of traversal difficulty of the terrain, into the path planning logic. The search methodology uses a traversal cost function that is derived directly from this Traversability Map. The path planning method is developed in detail and experimental results are presented.

New potential field method for rough terrain path planning using genetic algorithm for a 6-wheel rover

h i g h l i g h t s • Proposed a new potential field method for rough terrain path planning for a rover. • A gradient function is introduced in the conventional potential field method. • The gradient function depends on the roll, pitch and yaw angles of the rover. • Weights of potential field function are optimized by using GA. • Results prove that the new method is superior to conventional potential field method. a b s t r a c t Motion planning of rovers in rough terrains involves two parts of finding a safe path from an initial point to a goal point and also satisfying the path constraints (velocity, wheel torques, etc.) of the rover for traversing the path. In this paper, we propose a new motion planning algorithm on rough terrain for a 6 wheel rover with 10 DOF (degrees of freedom), by introducing a gradient function in the conventional potential field method. The new potential field function proposed consists of an attractive force, repulsive force, tangential force and a gradient force. The gradient force is a function of the roll, pitch and yaw angles of the rover at a particular location on the terrain. The roll, pitch and yaw angles are derived from the kinematic model of the rover. This additional force component ensures that the rover does not go over very high gradients and results in a safe path. Weights are assigned to the various components of the potential field function and the weights are optimized using genetic algorithms to get an optimal path that satisfies the path constraints via a cost function. The kinematic model of the rover is also derived that gives the wheel velocity ratio as it traverses different gradients. Quasi static force analysis ensures stability of the rover and prevents wheel slip. In order to compare different paths, four different objective functions are evaluated each considering energy, wheel slip, traction and length of the path. A comparison is also made between the conventional 2D potential field method and the newly proposed 3D potential field method. Simulation and experimental results show the usefulness of the new method for generating paths in rough terrains.

A Comparison of Two Path Planners for Planetary Rovers

1999

The paper presents two path planners suitable for planetary rovers. The first is based on fuzzy description of the terrain, and genetic algorithm to find a traversable path in a rugged terrain. The second planner uses a global optimization method with a cost function that is the path distance divided by the velocity limit obtained from the consideration of the

Path Planning in Dynamic Environment for a Rover using A* and Potential Field Method Rekha Raja

This paper proposes a path planning method for a wheeled mobile robot operating in rough terrain dynamic environments using a combination of A* search algorithm and potential field method. In this method, the mobile robot uses the structured light system to extract real terrain data as a discrete points to generate a b-spline surface. The terrain is classified based on the slope and elevation using a fuzzy logic controller and a user defined cost function is generated. A combination of A* and potential field method has been introduced to find the path from the start location to goal location according to the cost function. The A* algorithm determines the path that globally optimizes terrain roughness, curvature and length of the path, and the potential field method has been used as a local planner which performs an on-line planning to avoid the newly detected obstacles by the sensory information. The developed potential function is found to be able to avoid local minima in the work space.The results shows the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

3D Path planning using a fuzzy logic navigational map for Planetary Surface Rovers

2011

This work proposes an innovative app navigation path-planning problem exploration rovers by including terrain characteristics. The objective is to enhance the typical 2D arithmetical cost function by adding 3D information computed from the laser-scanned terrain such as terrain height, slopes, shadows, orientation and terrain roughness. This paper describes the algorithm developed by UPM and GMV and the tests made at the GMV outdoor test facilities using the Moon-Hound rover. This rover is a 50 Kg rover including a Sick laser mounted ...

The First International Conference On Intelligent Computing in Data Sciences Genetic Algorithm Based Approach for Autonomous Mobile Robot Path Planning

2018

In this study, an improved crossover operator is suggested, for solving path planning problems using genetic algorithms (GA) in static environment. GA has been widely applied in path optimization problem which consists in finding a valid and feasible path between two positions while avoiding obstacles and optimizing some criteria such as distance (length of the path), safety (the path must be as far as possible from the obstacles) ...etc. Several researches have provided new approaches used GA to produce an optimal path. Crossover operators existing in the literature can generate infeasible paths, most of these methods dont take into account the variable length chromosomes. The proposed crossover operator avoids premature convergence and offers feasible paths with better fitness value than its parents, thus the algorithm converges more rapidly. A new fitness function which takes into account the distance, the safety and the energy, is also suggested. In order to prove the validity o...

Enhanced Genetic Algorithm for Mobile Robot Path Planning in Static and Dynamic Environment

2016

Path planning is an important component for a mobile robot to be able to do its job in different types of environments. Furthermore, determining the safest and shortest path from the start location to a desired destination, intelligently and in quickly, is a major challenge, especially in a dynamic environment. Therefore, various optimisation methods are recommended to solve the problem, one of these being a genetic algorithm (GA). This paper investigates the capabilities of GA for solving the path planning problem for mobile robots in static and dynamic environments. First, it studies the different GA approaches. Then, it carefully designs a new GA with intelligent crossover to optimise the search process in static and dynamic environments. It also conducts a comprehensive statistical evaluation of the proposed GA approach in terms of solution quality and execution time, comparing it against the well-known A* algorithm and MGA in a static scenario, and against the Improved GA in a ...

Evolutionary Approach for Mobile Robot Path Planning in Complex environment

The shortest/optimal path planning in a static environment is essential for the efficient operation of a mobile robot. Recent advances in robotics and machine intelligence have led to the application of modern optimization method such as the genetic algorithm (GA), to solve the path-planning problem. In this paper, the problem of finding the optimal collision free path in complex environments for a mobile robot is solved using a hybrid neural network, Genetic Algorithm and local Search method. We constructed the neural network model of environmental and used this model to establish the relationship between a collision avoidance path and the output of the model. What is new in this work is a novel representation of solutions for evolutionary algorithms that is efficient, simple and also compatible with Hybrid algorithm. The new representation makes it possible to solve the problem with a small population and in a few generations. It also makes the genetic operator simple and allows using an efficient local search operator within the evolutionary algorithm. The performance of the proposed GA approach is tested on eight different environments consisting of polygonal obstacles with increasing complexity.

Navigation of Autonomous Robots Using Genetic Algorithms

Optimal motion planning is critical for the successful operation of an autonomous mobile robot. Many proposed approaches use either fuzzy logic or genetic algorithms (GAs), however, most approaches offer only path planning or only trajectory planning, but not both. In addition, few approaches attempt to address the impact of varying terrain conditions on the optimal path. This paper presents a fuzzy-genetic approach that provides both path and trajectory planning, and has the advantage of considering diverse terrain conditions when determining the optimal path. The terrain conditions are modeled using fuzzy linguistic variables to allow for the imprecision and uncertainty of the terrain data. Although a number of methods have been proposed using GAs, few are appropriate for a dynamic environment or provide response in real-time. The method proposed in this paper is robust, allowing the robot to adapt to dynamic conditions in the environment.

Path Optimization for Mobile Robot Using Genetic Algorithm

This study presents the concept of using the Genetic Algorithm approach to resolve the mobile robot path planning problem in a static environment with predictable terrain. We present our initial Idea for using genetic algorithms to assist a controllable mobile robot to hunt out an optimal path between a starting and ending point in an exceedingly grid environment. The two problems that occur in an exceedingly very mobile robot's path planning are finding the shortest path and a collision-free path. These should be achieved during a static environment of obstacles. This work is different from other works within the aspect of stationing the obstacles and running the genetic algorithm with user input iterations. This work ensures that the goal position is the global minimum path of the total potential. During this work, anytime the obstacles keep changing the positions. This work is finished in an environment that's modeled in space-time and collision-free path by a variation of the Genetic algorithm. A genetic algorithm is capable of competing with every other learning algorithm in terms of accuracy and high performance. Because the number of iterations keeps on increasing, the algorithm draws the shortest and collision-free path. When the obstacles, the initial and destination points, so the number of iterations are set the ultimate word result that's the shortest and collision-free path is acquired.