Autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) is a growing field within research. AGVs are used in areas like reconnaissance,surveillance, transportation and self-driving cars. The goal of this project is to drive a system of five AGVs modelled as differential drive vehicles along an arbitrary path through a field of obstacles while holding a formation. The goal is achieved by dividing the project into three subprojects. The first subproject is trajectory tracking of one AGV. This is achieved by using the differentialdrivemodel and driving the tracking error of the system to zero.The second subproject is formation control, where a displacement-based, double integrator model is used to get five AGVs to hold a formation of an equilateral triangle while following a path.The third subproject is collision avoidance between AGVs and static obstacles placed along the predetermined path. Collision avoidance is achieved by adding a repulsive potential field around the AGVs and obstacles. All three subprojects are then combined to achieve the goal of the project. Finally, simulations are done in Matlab which confirms that the proposed models are correct. / Autonoma vägfordon är ett växande område inom forskning. Autonoma vägfordon används inom områden som spaning, övervakning, transportering och självkörande bilar.Målet med det här projektet är att köra ett system med fem autonoma vägfordon modellerade som differentialdrivna fordon längsmed en slumpmässig väg genom ett fält med hinder samtidigt som de håller en formation. Målet uppnås genom att dela upp projektet i tre delprojekt. Det första delprojektet är banspårning med ett autonomt vägfordon. Det görs genom att använda den differentialdrivna modellen och driva systemets spårningsfel till noll. Det andra delprojektet är formationshållning där en förskjutningsbaserad dubbelintegratormodell används för att få fem fordon att följa en väg samtidigt som de håller formen av en liksidig triangel. Det tredje delprojektet handlar om att undvika kollision mellan fordonen och statiska hinder som placerats på vägen. Kollisionsundvikning uppnås genom att lägga på ett repellerande potentialfält runt alla agenter och hinder. Alla tre delprojekt kombineras sedan för att lösa projektmålet. Slutligen görs simuleringar i Matlab vilket bekräftar att de framtagna modellerna är korrekta. / Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2022, KTH, Stockholm

In this dissertation, we focus on the strategy that places and stabilizes the path of an aerial drogue, which is towed by a mothership aircraft using a long flexible cable, onto a horizontally flat orbit by maneuvering the mothership in the presence of wind. To achieve this goal, several studies for towed cable systems are conducted, which include the dynamic modeling for the cable, trajectory generation strategies for the mothership, trajectory-tracking control law design, and simulation and flight test implementations. First, a discretized approximation method based on finite element and lumped mass is employed to establish the mathematical model for the towed cable system in the simulation. Two approaches, Gauss's Principle and Newton's second law, are utilized to derive the equations of motion for inelastic and elastic cables, respectively. The preliminary studies for several key parameters of the system are conducted to learn their sensitivities to the system motion in the steady state. Flight test results are used to validate the mathematical model as well as to determine an appropriate number of cable links. Furthermore, differential flatness and model predictive control based methods are used to produce a mothership trajectory that leads the drogue onto a desired orbit. Different desired drogue orbits are utilized to generate required mothership trajectories in different wind conditions. The trajectory generation for a transitional flight in which the system flies from a straight and level flight into a circular orbit is also presented. The numerical results are presented to illustrate the required mothership orbits and its maneuverability in different wind conditions. A waypoint following based strategy for mothership to track its desired trajectory in flight test is developed. The flight test results are also presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the trajectory generation methods. In addition, a nonlinear time-varying feedback control law is developed to regulate the mothership to follow the desired trajectory in the presence of wind. Cable tensions and wind disturbance are taken into account in the design model and Lyapunov based backstepping technique is employed to develop the controller. The mothership tracking error is proved to be capable of exponentially converging to an ultimate bound, which is a function of the upper limit of the unknown component of the wind. The simulation results are presented to validate the controller. Finally, a trajectory-tracking strategy for unmanned aerial vehicles is developed where the autopilot is involved in the feedback controller design. The trajectory-tracking controller is derived based on a generalized design model using Lyapunov based backstepping. The augmentations of the design model and trajectory-tracking controller are conducted to involve the autopilot in the closed-loop system. Lyapunov stability theory is used to guarantee the augmented controller is capable of driving the vehicle to exponentially converge to and follow the desired trajectory with the other states remaining bounded. Numerical and Software-In-the-Loop simulation results are presented to validate the augmented controller. This method presents a framework of implementing the developed trajectory-tracking controllers for unmanned aerial vehicles without any modification to the autopilot.

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As autonomous ground vehicles grow in popularity,it is of interest to study how they could coordinate together andhow the technical systems can be implemented in a safe andeffective manner. The objective of this report is to examine howto autonomously move a formation of vehicles without collisionswith obstacles or other vehicles. This is done by considering threefundamental aspects: trajectory tracking, formation control andcollision avoidance. Firstly a trajectory tracking controller for anindividual vehicle is implemented, with the function of followinga desired trajectory. Secondly a displacement-based formationcontrol is explored for two models, the double-integrator modeland the nonholonomic model, with the objective of coordinatingmultiple vehicles to keep a certain formation. Lastly collisionavoidance is integrated in the formation control by adding arepulsive term to the formation controller. It is shown thatthe agents maintained formation while avoiding collision withobstacles and other agents. The implemented controllers wereverified through simulations in MATLAB. / Eftersom autonoma markfordon blir allt mer vanligt är det vikt att studera hur de kan samordna tillsammans och hur de tekniska systemen kan implementeras på ett säkert samt effektivt sätt. Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka hur man autonomt kan flytta en formation av fordon utan kollisioner med hinder eller med andra fordon. Detta görs genom att tre grundläggande aspekter övervägs: projektilspårning, formationshållning och kollisionsundvikande. Först implementeras en regulator för projektilsspårning, där funktionen är att följa en önskad bana. Därefter undersöks två modeller inom förskjutningsbaserad formationshållning, med ambitionen att samordna alla fordon för att behålla formationen. Slutligen så integreras metoder för kollisionsundvikning med formationshållning genom att lägga till bortstötande teknik i regulatorn för formationshållning. Det visades att fordonen lyckades med att upprätthålla formationen samtidigt som kollisioner mellan hinder och andra fordon undveks. De implementerade regulatorerna verifierades genom simuleringar i MATLAB. / Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2021, KTH, Stockholm

Compte tenu de la forte croissance du trafic aérien aussi bien dans les pays émergents que dans les pays développés soutenue durant ces dernières décennies, la satisfaction des exigences relatives à la sécurité et à l’environnement nécessite le développement de nouveaux systèmes de guidage. L’objectif principal de cette thèse est de contribuer à la synthèse d’une nouvelle génération de lois de guidage pour les avions de transport présentant de meilleures performances en terme de suivi de trajectoire. Il s’agit en particulier d’évaluer la faisabilité et les performances d’un système de guidage utilisant un référentiel spatial. Avant de présenter les principales approches utilisées pour le développement de lois de commande pour les systèmes de pilotage et de guidage automatiques et la génération de directives de guidage par le système de gestion du vol, la dynamique du vol d’un avion de transport est modélisée en prenant en compte d’une manière explicite les composantes du vent. Ensuite, l’intérêt de l’application de la commande adaptative dans le domaine de la conduite automatique du vol est discuté et une loi de commande adaptative pour le suivi de pente est proposée. Les principales techniques de commande non linéaires reconnues d’intérêt pour le suivi de trajectoire sont alors analysées. Finalement, une loi de commande référencée dans l’espace pour le guidage vertical d’un avion de transport est développée et est comparée avec l’approche temporelle classique. L’objectif est de réduire les erreurs de poursuite et mieux répondre aux contraintes de temps de passage en certains points de l’espace ainsi qu’à une possible contrainte de temps d’arrivée / Safety and environmental considerations in air transportation urge today for the development of new guidance systems with improved accuracy for spatial and temporal trajectory tracking.The main objectives of this thesis dissertation is to contribute to the synthesis of a new generation of nonlinear guidance control laws for transportation aircraft presenting enhanced trajectory tracking performances and to explore the feasibility and performances of a flight guidance system developed within a space-indexed reference with the aim of reducing tracking errors and ensuring the satisfaction of overfly time constraints as well as final arrival time constraint. Before presenting the main approaches for the design of control laws for autopilots and auto-guidance systems devoted to transport aircraft and the way current Flight Management Systems generates guidance directives, flight dynamics of transportation aircraft, including explicitly the wind components, are presented. Then, the interest for adaptive flight control is discussed and a self contained adaptive flight path tracking control for various flight conditions taking into account automatically the possible aerodynamic and thrust parametric changes is proposed. Then, the main recognized nonlinear control approaches suitable for trajectory tracking are analyzed. Finally an original vertical space-indexed guidance control law devoted to aircraft trajectory tracking is developed and compared with the classical time-indexed approach

L'objectif principal de ce travail est de proposer des approches de commande performantes et robustes aux incertitudes pour les robots parallèles de type Delta, qui sont conçus pour effectuer des tâches industriels importantes et exigeantes comme l'emballage en agroalimentaire, la découpe laser, etc. Les difficultés les plus importantes pour garantir une bonne performance de suivi de trajectoires de ces manipulateurs pour les hautes accélérations avec la meilleure précision possible, tout en conservant de telle performance indépendamment des conditions d'opération (par exemple avec différentes conditions de charge, différentes trajectoires, etc.) sont leur actionnement couplé, l'augmentation de leurs dynamiques non-linéaires et le problème de vibrations mécaniques avec l'augmentation des accélérations envisagées, la présence d'incertitudes sur le modèle/environnement et la redondance d'actionnement si elle existe. Dans cette thèse, différentes approches de commande et observateurs d'état ont été proposés et implémentés expérimentalement sur deux robots de type Delta, à savoir le Par2 (non-redondant) et le R4 (à redondance d'actionnement). Pour le premier, une commande non linéaire/adaptative à mode Dual a été proposée en espace articulaire, synthétisé avec trois différents observateurs d'état pour la estimation des vitesses articulaires: un observateur lead-lag, un observateur Alpha-bêta-gamma et un observateur à grand gain. Pour le robot R4, un commande à feedforward en espace-dual avec a été proposée pour la compensation de sa dynamique (avec laquelle une aaccélération maximale de 100G a été atteinte), puis un contrôleur adaptatif dans l'espace-dual a été proposé afin de garantir une estimation et mise à jours automatique des paramètres du système en temps réel, garantissant ainsi sa bonne performance indépendamment du scénario expérimental. L'analyse de stabilité du robot Par2 bouclé avec la commande adaptative à Mode Dual et du robot R4 commandé avec le contrôleur adaptatif dans l'espace-dual sont fournies, des simulations ont été effectuées et les résultats expérimentaux confirment la bonne performance des approches de commande proposées. / The main objective of this work is to propose control strategies performant and robust towards uncertainties for Delta-like parallel robots, which are designed to perform important and demanding industrial tasks, such as packaging, laser cutting, etc. The most important difficulties to guarantee the good tracking performance of these manipulators for very high accelerations with the best possible precision, while maintaining such performance independently of the operational case (e.g. with different load conditions, different trajectories, etc.) are their coupled actuation, the increase of their high nonlinear dynamics and the problem of mechanical vibrations with the increase of the involved accelerations, the presence of uncertainties in the model/environment and the redundant actuation when applicable. In this thesis, different control schemes and state observers were proposed and experimentally implemented on two Delta-like robots, namely the Par2 (non-redundant) and the R4 (redundantly actuated) parallel manipulators. For the former, a nonlinear/adaptive Dual Mode controller was proposed in the joint space, complied with three different state observers for the estimation of joint velocities: a Lead-lag based observer, an Alpha-beta-gamma observer and the High-gain observer. For the latter, firstly a dual-space feedforward controller was proposed for the compensation of its dynamics (with which a maximum of 100G of acceleration was reached), then a dual-space adaptive controller was proposed in order to automatically estimate the parameters of the system in real-time, thus guaranteeing its good performance independently of the experimental scenario. The stability analysis of Par2 robot under the control of the Dual Mode controller and the R4 robot under the control of the dual-space adaptive controller are provided, simulations were performed and the experimental results confirm the good performance of the proposed control schemes.

Simulation of maneuvers with multibody models of rotorcraft vehicles is an important research area due to its complexity. During the maneuvering flight, some important design limitations are encountered such as maximum loads and maximum turning rates near the proximity of the flight envelope. This increases the demand on high fidelity models in order to define appropriate controls to steer the model close to the desired trajectory while staying inside the boundaries. A framework based on the hierarchical decomposition of the problem is used for this study. The system should be capable of generating the track by itself based on the given criteria and also capable of piloting the model of the vehicle along this track. The generated track must be compatible with the dynamic characteristics of the vehicle. Defining the constraints for the maneuver is of crucial importance when the vehicle is operating close to its performance boundaries. In order to make the problem computationally feasible, two models of the same vehicle are used where the reduced model captures the coarse level flight dynamics, while the fine scale comprehensive model represents the plant. The problem is defined by introducing planning layer and control layer strategies. The planning layer stands for solving the optimal control problem for a specific maneuver of a reduced vehicle model. The control layer takes the resulting optimal trajectory as an optimal reference path, then tracks it by using a non-linear model predictive formulation and accordingly steers the multibody model. Reduced models for the planning and tracking layers are adapted by using neural network approach online to optimize the predictive capabilities of planner and tracker. Optimal neural network architecture is obtained to augment the reduced model in the best way. The methodology of adaptive learning rate is experimented with different strategies. Some useful training modes and algorithms are proposed for these type of applications. It is observed that the neural network increased the predictive capabilities of the reduced model in a robust way. The proposed framework is demonstrated on a maneuvering problem by studying an obstacle avoidance example with violent pull-up and pull-down.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the interest for snake like modular robots due to their superior locomotion capabilities in terms of versatility, adaptability and scalability. Passive wheeled planar snake like robots are a major category and they are being actively researched. Due to the nonholonomic constraints imposed on them, certain configurations lead to the singularity which must be avoided at all costs. Furthermore, it is vital to generate a locomotion pattern such that they can track a wide range of trajectories. All of these objectives must be accomplished smoothly and in an energy efficient manner. Studies indicate that meeting all of these requirements is a challenging problem. In this study, a novel form of the serpenoid curve is proposed in order to make the robot track arbitrary paths. A controller has been designed using the feedback linearization method. Afterwards, a new performance measure, considering both the efficiency and sustainability of the locomotion, has been proposed to evaluate the locomotion. Optimal parameters for the proposed serpenoid curve and the linear controller have been determined for efficient locomotion by running series of simulations. Relations between the locomotion performance, locomotion speed and eigenvalues of the linear controller have been demonstrated. Simulation results show striking differences between the locomotion by using the proposed serpenoid curve with optimal parameters and the locomotion by purely tracking a given path. Obtained results also indicate that the aforementioned requirements are met successfully and confirm the validity and consistency of the proposed performance measure.

New control methods are developed for the unconstrained motion and constrained force and motion control of flexible robots. The dynamic equations of the flexible robots are partitioned as pseudostatic equilibrium equations and deviations from them. The pseudostatic equilibrium considered here is defined as a hypothetical state where the tip point variables have their desired values while the modal variables are instantaneously constant. Then, the control torques for the pseudostatic equilibrium and for the stabilization of the deviation equations are formed in terms of tip point coordinates, modal variables and contact force components. The performances of the proposed methods are illustrated on a planar two-link robot and on a spatial three-link robot. Unmodeled dynamics and measurement noises are also taken into consideration. Performance of the proposed motion control method is compared with the computed torque method.

Avec la forte augmentation actuelle et future du trafic aérien, les questions relatives à la capacité, la sécurité et les effets environnementaux du transport aérien vont se poser de façon chaque fois plus critique. L'objectif général de cette thèse est de contribuer à l'amélioration de l'opération et de l'organisation du trafic aérien dans cette perspective de croissance. Le premier objectif spécifique de cette thèse est de faire la synthèse d'une loi de commande permettant aux avions de transport de suivre avec précision une trajectoire 3D+T. Le deuxième objectif spécifique de cette thèse est d'introduire une organisation particulière des corridors aériens, les airstreams, compatible avec la loi de guidage développée et permettant d'utiliser au mieux la capacité du corridor. Ainsi dans une première étape est introduite la dynamique de guidage des avions de transport, ainsi que les systèmes de guidage et de gestion du vol des avions modernes. Ensuite les principaux éléments de l'organisation de la gestion et du contrôle du trafic aérien sont introduits. La loi de guidage 3D+T est développée, simulée et ses performances sont analysées. L'étude d'une manœuvré de changement de voie dans un airstream est alors menée et mise en œuvre dans le cadre de la gestion du trafic à l'intérieur de celui-ci. Finalement les conclusions et perspectives de cette étude sont présentées / With the increase in air traffic, surely a question of flight efficiency (delays), environment impact and safety arise. This calls for improvements in accuracy of spatial and temporal trajectory tracking. The first main objective of this thesis is to contribute to the synthesis of a space-indexed nonlinear guidance control law for transportation aircraft presenting enhanced tracking performances and to explore the performances and feasibility of a flight guidance control law which is developed based on a space-indexed reference to track a 3D+T reference trajectory using nonlinear dynamic inversion control. The proposed guidance control law present reduced tracking errors and able to meet more easily overfly time constraints. Before presenting the main approaches for the design of the 3D+T guidance control laws; the modern flight guidance and flight dynamics of transportation aircraft, including explicitly wind components are first introduced. Then, a description of the current and modern air traffic organization including the organization of air traffic in high density flow will be shown and this will lead to a description of the Airstreams concept. This proposed concept is to organize main traffic flows in congested airspace along airstreams which are characterized by a three dimensional (3D) common reference track (ASRT). Finally, a scenario to perform basic maneuvers inside the airstream following a 3D+T trajectory using a common space-indexed will be developed and will be used to illustrate the traffic management along an airstream.