Title: Visual Programming Backend for a Mobile Robot Author: Bc. Ondřej Staněk Department: The Department of Software Engineering Supervisor: RNDr. David Obdržálek, Ph.D. Supervisor's e-mail address: David.Obdrzalek@mff.cuni.cz Abstract: In this work, the author designs and implements a solution for programming small mobile robots using a visual programming language. A suitable visual programming front-end is selected and back-end layers are created that allow execution of the program in a mobile robot. The author designs and implements a virtual machine that runs alongside the original robot firmware on an 8-bit microcontroller with limited resources. A code generator layer compiles the visual representation of the program into a sequence of bytecode instructions that is interpreted on board of the mobile robot. The solution supports typical features of procedural programming languages, in particular: variables, expressions, conditional statements, loops, static arrays, function calls and recursion. The emphasis is put on robustness of the implementation. To verify and maintain code quality, methods of automated software testing are used. Keywords: visual programming language, virtual machine, mobile robot, Blockly Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

El siguiente trabajo busca desarrollar y testear un controlador para un robot móvil con fines agrícolas. Enmarcado en un proyecto más grande, que actualmente desarrolla un prototipo de robot móvil con desplazamiento autónomo para colaborar en las tareas agropecuarias, este trabajo parte de las ecuaciones cinemáticas desarrolladas para este prototipo y desarrolla una estrategia de control mediante torque computado para el desplazamiento autónomo del vehículo en el medio y se realizan simulaciones de las mismas. Realizado este trabajo y obteniendo resultados certeros se deja todo pronto para continuar con la instancia experimental en el prototipo. / The following dissertation tries to develop and test a movil robot controller for agricultural purposes. Framed in a bigger proyect that is currently developing a mobile robot prototype with autonomous movement to help with agricultural work, this work starts in the kinematic equations developed for the prototype and develops a control strategy through computed torque control for the autonomous movement of the vehicle and simulations are performed of such computation. With this work finished and with the results obtained is ready to continue with the experimental instance in the prototype.

Nesta dissertação é realizado um estudo comparativo entre controladores robustos projetados para sistemas lineares em espaço de estado sujeitos a incertezas paramétricas. O objetivo é resolver problemas de acompanhamento de trajetória de robôs. O estudo é realizado em um robô móvel com tração diferencial e em um quadricóptero. Para tal, é aplicado um Regulador Linear Quadrático Robusto no qual engloba em uma estrutura unificada todos os parâmetros de incerteza de entrada e saída de maneira recursiva, útil em aplicações em tempo real. A fim de demonstrar a eficiência do Regulador Robusto, resultados de simulações e de experimentos são empregados comparando-o com controle Η∞ não linear via teoria dos jogos e com um controle Proporcional-Derivativo mais torque calculado. / This work provides a comparative study between robust controllers for linear statespace systems subject to parametric uncertainties to solve trajectory tracking problems. The study is developed in a mobile robot with differential traction and in a quadricopter. A Robust Linear Quadratic Regulator is applied, which encompasses in a unified framework all input and output uncertain parameters, useful in online applications. In order to show the effectiveness of the robust regulator, simulations and experiments results allow the comparison with nonlinear Η∞ control via game theory and with a Proportional- Derivative control plus computed torque.

Orientador: Paulo Roberto Gardel Kurka / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T01:31:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rafikova_Elvira_D.pdf: 4596616 bytes, checksum: 0cd6c928bfae826c2cea718bdb3843e5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: O enfoque principal desse trabalho é o controle de trajetória e navegação no ambiente através da visão estereoscópica de um robô móvel de duas rodas de acionamento diferencial. Para o controle de posicionamento, são utilizadas: uma estratégia de controle ótima linear e uma estratégia subótima, não linear, em tempo contínuo, chamada de SDRE (State Dependent Riccati Equation), e por fim, uma estratégia de controle SDRE em tempo discreto. Todas essas estratégias são baseadas em funções de Lyapunov e aplicadas ao problema de regulação do robô a uma referência. Para a navegação do robô no ambiente é considerado um modelo navegação por odometria e um mecanismo de visão estereoscópica. A estimação do estado é realizada através do filtro de Kalman clássico. São apresentadas duas estratégias para a navegação do robô no ambiente. Uma delas, totalmente discreta com a utilização do métodos de controle SDRE discreto, observação de estado discreta através das câmeras e estimação de estado através do filtro de Kalman discreto. Outra, com a abordagem de horizonte recuável, utilizando controle SDRE contínuo e, observação e estimação de estado discretas. A eficácia dos métodos de controle e das estratégias de navegação do robô é verificada através de simulações computacionais, nas quais a estratégia de navegação com horizonte recuável se mostra eficaz para a navegação precisa no ambiente / Abstract: The main approach of this thesis is the trajectory control and navigation of a differential steering mobile robot in the environment. For the position control problem are used? A continuous-time, linear feedback control; a suboptimal, nonlinear, continuous-time feedback called SDRE (StateDependent Riccati Equation) control and a discrete - time SDRE control method. All of these methods are Lyapunov functions based and appplied to the reference tracking problem oh the nonholonomic robot. For the purpose of the environmental navigation a model of odometry-stereo vision state observation system is considered. Meanwhile, the state estimation is given by classic Kalman filter. Futhermore, two different navigation strategies are presented. The discret-time one, using both discret SDRE control method and state estimation. Another one, is a receding horizon strategy, using continuous-time SDRE controler and sicret-time state estimation. The control method and navigation strategies eficaccy is verified through numerical simulations. Both navigation stategies demostrate good results, although the receding horizon one provides more precise navigation / Doutorado / Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico / Doutor em Engenharia Mecânica

Este trabalho apresenta uma arquitetura de controle de movimento entre duas posturas distintas para um robô móvel sob rodas com acionamento diferencial em um ambiente estruturado e livre de obstáculos. O conceito clássico de eficiência foi utilizado para a definição das estratégias de controle: um robô se movimenta de forma eficiente quando realiza a tarefa determinada no menor tempo e utilizando menor quantidade energética. A arquitetura proposta é um recorte do modelo de Controle Hierárquico Aninhado (NHC), composto por três níveis de abstração: (i) Planejamento de Caminho, (ii) Planejamento de Trajetória e (iii) Rastreamento de Trajetória. O Planejamento de Caminho proposto suaviza uma geodésica Dubins - o caminho mais eficiente - por uma Spline Grampeada para que este caminho seja definido por uma curva duplamente diferenciável. Uma transformação do espaço de configuração do robô é realizada. O Planejamento de Trajetória é um problema de otimização convexa na forma de Programação Cônica de Segunda Ordem, cujo objetivo é uma função ponderada entre tempo e energia. Como o tempo de percurso e a energia total consumida pelo robô possui uma relação hiperbólica, um algoritmo de sintonia do coeficiente de ponderação entre estas grandezas é proposta. Por fim, um Rastreador de Trajetória de dupla malha baseado em linearização entrada-saída e controle PID é proposto, e obteve resultados satisfatórios no rastreamento do caminho pelo robô. / This work presents a motion control architecture between two different positions for a differential driven wheeled mobile robot in a obstacles free structured environment. The classic concept of efficiency was used to define the control strategies: a robot moves efficiently when it accomplishes the determined task in the shortest time and using less amount of energy. The proposed architecture is a clipping of the Nested Hierarchical Controller (NHC) model, composed of three levels of abstraction: (i) Path Planning, (ii) Trajectory Planning and (iii) Trajectory Tracking. The proposed Path Planning smoothes a geodesic Dubins - the most efficient path - by a Clamped Spline as this path is defined by a twice differentiable curve. A transformation of the robot configuration space is performed. The Trajectory Planning is a convex optimization problem in the form of Second Order Cone Programming, whose objective is a weighted function between time and energy. As the travel time and the total energy consumed by the robot has a hyperbolic relation, a tuning algorithm to the weighting is proposed. Finnaly, a dual-loop Trajectory Tracker based on input-output feedback linearization and PID control is proposed, which obtained satisfactory results in tracking the path by the robot.

This thesis provides a baseline study for eye tracking user interface design for controlling a mobile robot. The baseline study is an experiment involving the use of a radio controller (RC) to drive the robot, while gaze data is collected from each subject monitoring the position of robot on the remote screen that displays the view for the turret-mounted video camera on the robot. Initial data from the experiment provides a foundation for interface design of actual control of the mobile robot by gaze interaction. Such an interface may provide Tele-presence for the disable. Patients with motor disability cannot use their hands and legs but only use their eye motions. Such applications of an eye tracking system can provide patients with much flexibility and freedom for search and identification of objects. / Muhammad Asghar Jan (+46-700183140) syedmaji@hotmail.com (+46-736805771)

The problem of integrated cognition , analyzed in the thesis, belongs to a multi-disciplinary area of cognitive engineering. The multi-disciplinary focusing on cognitive models and real-time embedded systems, such as mobile robots, helps to reveal a broader and deeper understanding of robotics as part of everyday life and society. Over the past decades many cognitive architectures have been proposed and steadily developed, based on different approaches and methodologies, but still current cognitive architectures are far from the goal of covering the requirements for general intelligence. Recent research in the area of evolutionary algorithms and genetic programming is used in this study as an inspiration for developing the new version of integrated cognitive architecture, and the knowledge of human brain structure and functions is applied to the architecture as well. In this study a survey of cognitive architectures is performed, a version of biologically inspired hybrid cognitive architecture is developed. This architecture is influenced by a contemporary research in evolutionary algorithms and genetic programming. Some modules of the architecture are applied to a mobile robot in a simulated environment.

Cooperative control of multi-agent systems (MASs) has been intensively investigated in the past decade. The task is always complicated for an individual agent, but can be achieved by collectively operating a group of agents in a reliable, economic and efficient way. Although a lot of efforts are being spent on improving MAS performances, much progress has yet to be developed on different aspects. This thesis aims to solve problems in the consensus control of multiple quadrotors and/or mobile robots considering irregular sampling controls, heterogeneous agent dynamics and the presence of model uncertainties and disturbances. The thesis proceeds with Chapter 1 by providing the literature review of the state-of-the-art development in the consensus control of MASs. Chapter 2 introduces experimental setups of the laboratory involving two-wheeled mobile robots (2WMRs), quadrotors, positioning systems and inter-vehicle communications. All of the developed theoretical results in Chapters 3-6 are experimentally verified on the platform. Then it is followed by two main parts: Irregular sampling consensus control methods (Chapter 3 and 4) and cooperative control of heterogeneous MASs (Chapter 5 and 6). Chapter 3 focuses on the non-uniform sampling consensus control for a group of 2WMRs, and Chapter 4 studies the event-based rendezvous control for a group of asynchronous robots with time-varying communication delays. Chapter 5 concentrates on cooperative control methods for a heterogeneous MAS consisting of quadrotors and 2WMRs. Chapter 6 focuses on the design of a quadrotor flight controller which is robust to various adverse factors such as model uncertainties and external disturbances. The developed controller is further applied to the consensus control of the heterogeneous MAS. Specifically, Chapter 3 studies synchronized and non-periodical sampling consensus control methods for a group of 2WMRs. The directed and switching communication topologies among the network are considered in the controller design. The 2WMR is an underactuated system, which implies that it can not generate independent x and y accelerations in the two-dimensional plane. The rendezvous control methods are proposed for 2WMRs. The algebraic graph theory and stochastic matrix analysis are employed to conduct the convergence analysis. Although the samplings in the work of Chapter 3 are aperiodic, one feature is that local clocks of agents are required to be synchronized. Challenges arise in the practical control of distributed MASs, especially in the scenario that the global clock is lacking. Moreover, frequent samplings can result in redundant information transmissions when the communication bandwidth is limited. To address these problems, Chapter 4 investigates an event-based rendezvous control method for a group of asynchronous MAS with time-varying communication delays. Integral-type triggering conditions for each robot are adopted to be checked periodically. If the triggering condition is satisfied at one checking instant, the agent samples and broadcasts the state to the neighbors with a bounded communication delay. Then an algorithm is provided for driving 2WMRs to asymptotically reach rendezvous. The convergence analysis is conducted through Lyapunov approaches. Most of the theoretical works on cooperative control are focused on controlling agents with identical dynamics. However, in certain realistic scenarios, some complex missions require the cooperation of different types of agent dynamics such as surveillance, search and rescue, etc. Tasks can be carried out with higher efficiency by employing both the autonomous ground vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles. To achieve better performance for MASs, in Chapter 5, distributed cooperative control methods for a heterogeneous MAS consisting of quadrotors and 2WMRs are developed. Consensus conditions are provided, and the theoretical results are experimentally verified. Many existing quadrotor control methods need exact model parameters of the quadrotor. In reality, when a quadrotor is conducting some tasks with extra payloads or with unexpected damages to the model structure, errors in parameters could result in the failure of the flight. External disturbances also inevitably affect the flight performance. To move a step further towards practical applications, in Chapter 6, a robust quadrotor flight controller using Integral Sliding Mode Control (ISMC) technique is investigated. In experiments, an extra payload with the position and mass unknown, is attached to destroy the accuracy of the model and to add disturbances. The designed controller significantly rejects negative effects caused by the payload during the flight. This controller is also successfully applied to an MAS consisting of a quadrotor and 2WMRs. / Graduate

To avoid getting stuck or causing damage to a vehicle or its surroundings a driver must be able to identify obstacles and adapt speed to ground conditions. An automatically controlled vehicle must be able to handle these identifications and adjustments by itself using sensors, actuators and control software. By storing properties of the surroundings in a map, a vehicle revisiting an area can benefit from prior information. Rough ground may cause oscillations in the vehicle chassis. These can be measured by on-board motion sensors. For obstacle detection, a representation of the geometry of the surroundings can be created using range sensors. Information on where it is suitable to drive, called traversability, can be generated based on these kinds of sensor measurements. In this work, real semi-autonomous mobile robots have been used to create traverasbility maps in both simulated and real outdoor environments. Seeking out problems through experiments and implementing algorithms in an attempt to solve them has been the core of the work. Finding large obstacles in the vicinity of a vehicle is seldom a problem; accurately identifying small near-ground obstacles is much more difficult, however. The work additionally includes both high-level path planning, where no obstacle details are considered, and more detailed planning for finding an obstacle free path. How prior maps can be matched and merged in preparation for path planning operations is also shown. To prevent collisions with unforeseen objects, up-to-date traversability information is used in local-area navigation and obstacle avoidance.

The diploma thesis is focused on the topic of global satellite navigation of mobile robots. The paper describes the principle of currently available global satellite navigation systems. The main element of the thesis is the proposal of mobile robot navigation algorithm. An integral part is also the design of a mobile robot to verify the functionality of the navigation algorithm. The robot software program is described. At the end, everything is verified by real experiments.