Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Reissued 30 May 2017 with correction to student's affiliation on title page. / Autonomous vehicle teams have great potential in a wide range of maritime sensing applications, including mine countermeasures (MCM). A key enabler for successfully employing autonomous vehicles in MCM missions is motion planning, a collection of algo-rithms for designing trajectories that vehicles must follow. For maximum utility, these algorithms must consider the capabilities and limitations of each team member. At a minimum, they should incorporate dynamic and operational constraints to ensure trajectories are feasible. Another goal is maximizing sensor performance in the presence of uncertainty. Optimal control provides a useful frame-work for solving these types of motion planning problems with dynamic constraints and di_x000B_erent performance objectives, but they usually require numerical solutions. Recent advances in numerical methods have produced a general mathematical and computational framework for numerically solving optimal control problems with parameter uncertainty—generalized optimal control (GenOC)— thus making it possible to numerically solve optimal search problems with multiple searcher, sensor, and target models. In this dissertation, we use the GenOC framework to solve motion planning problems for di_x000B_erentMCMsearch missions conducted by autonomous surface and underwater vehicles. Physics-based sonar detection models are developed for operationally relevant MCM sensors, and the resulting optimal search trajectories improve mine detection performance over conventional lawnmower survey patterns—especially under time or resource constraints. Simulation results highlight the flexibility of this approach for optimal mo-tion planning and pre-mission analysis. Finally, a novel application of this framework is presented to address inverse problems relating search performance to sensor design, team composition, and mission planning for MCM CONOPS development.

The Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) is an optimal control approach which aims to drive states of a linear system to its origin through the minimization of a quadratic cost functional. Such an approach has been widely successful for both theoretical and practical applications. However, when such controllers are subject to uncertainties, optimal closed-loop performance cannot be obtained since robustness properties are no longer guaranteed. Guaranteed Cost Controllers (GCC) presents robust asymptotic stability and provides a guaranteed upper bound to a quadratic cost function. Such method addresses the lack of performance guarantees of the LQR. Meanwhile, Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a class of optimization-based control algorithms that use an explicit model of the controlled system to predict its future states. The MPC can be as a generalization of the LQR for constrained linear systems. Therefore, it equally suffers from a lack of robustness guarantees when the system is subject to uncertainties. Robust MPC (RMPC) approaches were proposed to address MPCs poor closed-loop performance subject to uncertainties. Its objective is to obtain a control input sequence that simultaneously minimizes a cost function and guarantees the feasibility of system states and control inputs, for a system subject to the worst-case disturbance within an uncertainty set. Autonomous vehicles have gained increasing interest from both the industry and research communities in recent years. An essential aspect in the design of automotive control systems is to ensure the controller is stable and has acceptable performance within the entire operational envelope which it is designed to operate. In the case of autonomous vehicles, where there is no human driver as a fallback, it is of utmost importance to ensure the safe operations of the control system and its capability to avoid saturating the handling limits of the vehicle. In this thesis, we propose Guaranteed Cost Controller approaches for both unconstrained and constrained linear systems subject to multiplicative structured norm-bounded uncertainties and present the application of such a controller to the lateral control problem of autonomous vehicles up to the tire saturation limits. / O Regulador Quadrático Linear (Linear Quadratic Regulator, LQR) é uma abordagem de controle ótimo que visa conduzir estados de um sistema linear à sua origem através da minimização de um custo funcional quadrático. Tal abordagem tem sido amplamente bem sucedida para aplicações teóricas e práticas. No entanto, não é possível obter o desempenho ótimo de malha fechada quando esses controladores são sujeitos a incertezas no sistema em decorrência de suas propriedades de robustez não serem garantidas. Controladores de Custo Garantido (Guaranteed Cost Control, GCC) visam abordar a falta de garantia de desempenho do LQR, neste caso. Esses controladores apresentam estabilidade assintótica robusta e fornecem um custo garantido de pior caso para uma função de custo quadrático. O Controle Preditivo de Modelo (Model Predictive Control, MPC) é uma classe de algoritmos de controle baseados em otimização que usa um modelo explícito do sistema controlado para prever seus estados futuros. Uma possível interpretação do MPC é uma generalização do LQR para sistemas lineares com restrições de estado e entrada de controle. Portanto, essa abordagem sofre igualmente da falta de garantias de robustez quando o sistema é sujeito a incertezas. As abordagens de MPC Robustas (Robust MPC, RMPC) foram propostas para abordar o desempenho de malha fechada do MPC sujeito a incertezas no sistema. Seu objetivo é obter uma sequência de entrada de controle que minimize simultaneamente uma função de custo e garanta que os estados do sistema e as entradas de controle estão contidos dentro das restrições para um sistema sujeito à pior das perturbações dentro de um conjunto admissível de incertezas. Pesquisas voltadas para veículos autônomos ganharam crescente interesse nos últimos anos, tanto da indústria automobilística quanto da comunidade acadêmica. Um aspecto essencial no projeto de sistemas de controle automotivo é a garantia de estabilidade e desempenho do controlador dentro de todo o envelope operacional ao qual ele foi projetado para operar. No caso de veículos autônomos, onde não há motoristas humanos para lidar com casos de falha do sistema, é de suma importância assegurar as operações seguras do sistema de controle e sua capacidade de evitar a saturação dos limites de manuseio do veículo. Nesta tese, propomos abordagens GCC para sistemas lineares restritos e irrestritos, sujeitos a incertezas estruturadas contidas por norma e apresentamos a aplicação de tais controladores ao problema de controle lateral de veículos autônomos até os limites de saturação dos pneus.

No contexto do mundo contemporâneo, os veículos automotores estão cada vez mais integrados ao cotidiano das pessoas, sendo mais de 1 bilhão deles circulando pelo mundo. Por serem controlados por motoristas, estão sujeitos a falhas decorrentes da inerente condição humana, ocasionando acidentes, mortes e outros prejuízos. O controle autônomo de veículos tem se apresentado como alternativa na busca de redução desses prejuízos, sendo utilizado nas mais diferentes abordagens, por distintas instituições ao redor do planeta. Deste modo, torna-se uma pauta fundamental para o estudo de sistemas de controle. Este trabalho, valendo-se da descrição matemática do comportamento veicular, busca o desenvolvimento e a implementação de um método eficiente de controle autônomo de veículos voltado, principalmente, para a modelagem em espaço de estados. Considerando que mudanças de marchas, principalmente em um cenário de dirigibilidade autônoma, são ações aleatórias, o objetivo desta dissertação é utilizar estratégias de controle baseadas em sistemas lineares sujeitos a saltos Markovianos. / In nowadays society, automobile vehicles are getting more and more integrated to people\'s daily activities, as there are more than 1 billion of them on the streets around the world. As they are controlled by drivers, vehicles are subjected to failures caused by human mistakes that lead to accidents, injuries and others. Autonomous vehicle control has shown itself to be an alternative in the pursuit of damage reduction, and it is applied by different institutions in many countries. Therefore, it is a main subject in the area of control systems. This paper, relying on mathematical descriptions of vehicle behavior, aims to develop and apply an efficient autonomous control method that takes into account state-space formulation. This goal will be achieved by the use of control strategies based on Markovian Jump Linear Systems that will describe the highly non-linear dynamics of the vehicle in different operation points.

Graças aos avanços tecnológicos nas áreas da computação, eletrônica embarcada e mecatrônica a robótica está cada vez mais presente no cotidiano da pessoas. Nessas últimas décadas, uma infinidade de ferramentas e métodos foram desenvolvidos no campo da Robótica Móvel. Um exemplo disso são os sistemas inteligentes embarcados nos veículos de passeio. Tais sistemas auxiliam na condução através de sensores que recebem informações do ambiente e algoritmos que analisam os dados e tomam decisões para realizar uma determinada tarefa, como por exemplo estacionar um carro. Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar estudos realizados no desenvolvimento de um controlador inteligente capaz de estacionar um veículo simulado em vagas paralelas, na qual seja possível entrar com uma única manobra. Para isso, foi necessário realizar estudos envolvendo a modelagem de ambientes, cinemática veicular e sensores, os quais foram implementados em um ambiente de simulação desenvolvido em C# com o Visual Studio 2008. Em seguida é realizado um estudo sobre as três etapas do estacionamento, que consistem em procurar uma vaga, posicionar o veículo e manobrá-lo. Para realizar a manobra foi adotada a trajetória em S desenvolvida e muito utilizada em outros trabalhos encontrados na literatura da área. A manobra consiste em posicionar corretamente duas circunferências com um raio de esterçamento do veículo. Sendo assim, foi utilizado um controlador robusto baseado em aprendizado supervisionado utilizando Redes Neurais Artificiais (RNA), pois esta abordagem apresenta grande robustez com relação à presença de ruídos no sistema. Este controlador recebe dados de dois sensores laser (um fixado na frente do veículo e o outro na parte traseira), da odometria e de orientação de um sensor inercial. Os dados adquiridos desses sensores e a etapa da manobra em que o veículo está, servem de entrada para o controlador. Este é capaz de interpretar tais dados e responder a esses estímulos de forma correta em aproximadamente 99% dos casos. Os resultados de treinamento e de simulação se mostraram muito satisfatórios, permitindo que o carro controlador pela RNA pudesse estacionar corretamente em uma vaga paralela. / Thanks to technological advances in the fields of computer science, embedded electronics and mechatronics, robotics is increasingly more present in people\'s lives. On the past few decades a great variety of tools and methods were developed in the Mobile Robotics field, e.g. the passenger vehicles with smart embedded systems. Such systems help drivers through sensors that acquire information from the surrounding environment and algorithms which process this data and make decisions to perform a task, like parking a car. This work aims to present the studies performed on the development of a smart controller able to park a simulated vehicle in parallel parking spaces, where a single maneuver is enough to enter. To accomplish this, studies involving the modeling of environments, vehicle kinematics and sensors were conducted, which were implemented in a simulated environment developed in C# with Visual Studio 2008. Next, a study about the three stages of parking was carried out, which consists in looking for a slot, positioning the vehicle and maneuvering it. The \"S\" trajectory was adopted and developed to maneuver the vehicle, since it is well known and highly used in related works found in the literature of this field. The maneuver consists in the correct positioning of two circumferences with the possible steering radius of the vehicle. For this task, a robust controller based on supervised learning using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) was employed, since this approach has great robustness regarding the presence of noise in the system. This controller receives data from two laser sensors (one attached on the front of the vehicle and the other on the rear), from the odometry and from the inertial orientation sensor. The data acquired from these sensors and the current maneuver stage of the vehicle are the inputs of the controller, which interprets these data and responds to these stimuli in a correct way in approximately 99% of the cases. The results of the training and simulation were satisfactory, allowing the car controlled by the ANN to correctly park in a parallel slot.

O número de acidentes veiculares têm aumentado mundialmente e a principal causa associada a estes acidentes é a falha humana. O desenvolvimento de veículos autônomos é uma área que ganhou destaque em vários grupos de pesquisa do mundo, e um dos principais objetivos é proporcionar um meio de evitar estes acidentes. Os sistemas de navegação utilizados nestes veículos precisam ser extremamente confiáveis e robustos o que exige o desenvolvimento de soluções específicas para solucionar o problema. Devido ao baixo custo e a riqueza de informações, um dos sensores mais utilizados para executar navegação autônoma (e nos sistemas de auxílio ao motorista) são as câmeras. Informações sobre o ambiente são extraídas por meio do processamento das imagens obtidas pela câmera, e em seguida são utilizadas pelo sistema de navegação. O objetivo principal desta tese consiste do projeto, implementação, teste e otimização de um comitê de Redes Neurais Artificiais utilizadas em Sistemas de Visão Computacional para Veículos Autônomos (considerando em específico o modelo proposto e desenvolvido no Laboratório de Robótica Móvel (LRM)), em hardware, buscando acelerar seu tempo de execução, para utilização como classificadores de imagens nos veículos autônomos desenvolvidos pelo grupo de pesquisa do LRM. Dentre as contribuições deste trabalho, as principais são: um hardware configurado em um FPGA que executa a propagação do sinal em um comitê de redes neurais artificiais de forma rápida com baixo consumo de energia, comparado a um computador de propósito geral; resultados práticos avaliando precisão, consumo de hardware e temporização da estrutura para a classe de aplicações em questão que utiliza a representação de ponto-fixo; um gerador automático de look-up tables utilizadas para substituir o cálculo exato de funções de ativação em redes MLP; um co-projeto de hardware/software que obteve resultados relevantes para implementação do algoritmo de treinamento Backpropagation e, considerando todos os resultados, uma estrutura que permite uma grande diversidade de trabalhos futuros de hardware para robótica por implementar um sistema de processamento de imagens em hardware. / The number of vehicular accidents have increased worldwide and the leading associated cause is the human failure. Autonomous vehicles design is gathering attention throughout the world in industry and universities. Several research groups in the world are designing autonomous vehicles or driving assistance systems with the main goal of providing means to avoid these accidents. Autonomous vehicles navigation systems need to be reliable with real-time performance which requires the design of specific solutions to solve the problem. Due to the low cost and high amount of collected information, one of the most used sensors to perform autonomous navigation (and driving assistance systems) are the cameras.Information from the environment is extracted through obtained images and then used by navigation systems. The main goal of this thesis is the design, implementation, testing and optimization of an Artificial Neural Network ensemble used in an autonomous vehicle navigation system (considering the navigation system proposed and designed in Mobile Robotics Lab (LRM)) in hardware, in order to increase its capabilites, to be used as image classifiers for robot visual navigation. The main contributions of this work are: a reconfigurable hardware that performs a fast signal propagation in a neural network ensemble consuming less energy when compared to a general purpose computer, due to the nature of the hardware device; practical results on the tradeoff between precision, hardware consumption and timing for the class of applications in question using the fixed-point representation; a automatic generator of look-up tables widely used in hardware neural networks to replace the exact calculation of activation functions; a hardware/software co-design that achieve significant results for backpropagation training algorithm implementation, and considering all presented results, a structure which allows a considerable number of future works on hardware image processing for robotics applications by implementing a functional image processing hardware system.

Este projeto de mestrado visa a pesquisa e o desenvolvimento de métodos e algoritmos, relacionados ao uso de radares, visão computacional, calibração e fusão de sensores em veículos autônomos/inteligentes para fazer a detecção de obstáculos. O processo de detecção de obstáculos se divide em três etapas, a primeira é a leitura de sinais de Radar, do LiDAR e a captura de dados da câmera estéreo devidamente calibrados, a segunda etapa é a fusão de dados obtidos na etapa anterior (Radar+câmera, Radar+LIDAR 3D), a terceira etapa é a extração de características das informações obtidas, identificando e diferenciando o plano de suporte (chão) dos obstáculos, e finalmente realizando a detecção dos obstáculos resultantes da fusão dos dados. Assim é possível diferenciar os diversos tipos de elementos identificados pelo Radar e que são confirmados e unidos aos dados obtidos por visão computacional ou LIDAR (nuvens de pontos), obtendo uma descrição mais precisa do contorno, formato, tamanho e posicionamento destes. Na tarefa de detecção é importante localizar e segmentar os obstáculos para posteriormente tomar decisões referentes ao controle do veículo autônomo/inteligente. É importante destacar que o Radar opera em condições adversas (pouca ou nenhuma iluminação, com poeira ou neblina), porém permite obter apenas pontos isolados representando os obstáculos (esparsos). Por outro lado, a câmera estéreo e o LIDAR 3D permitem definir os contornos dos objetos representando mais adequadamente seu volume, porém no caso da câmera esta é mais suscetível a variações na iluminação e a condições restritas ambientais e de visibilidade (p.ex. poeira, neblina, chuva). Também devemos destacar que antes do processo de fusão é importante alinhar espacialmente os dados dos sensores, isto e calibrar adequadamente os sensores para poder transladar dados fornecidos por um sensor referenciado no próprio sistema de coordenadas para um outro sistema de coordenadas de outro sensor ou para um sistema de coordenadas global. Este projeto foi desenvolvido usando a plataforma CaRINA II desenvolvida junto ao Laboratório LRM do ICMC/USP São Carlos. Por fim, o projeto foi implementado usando o ambiente ROS, OpenCV e PCL, permitindo a realização de experimentos com dados reais de Radar, LIDAR e câmera estéreo, bem como realizando uma avaliação da qualidade da fusão dos dados e detecção de obstáculos comestes sensores. / This masters project aims to research and develop methods and algorithms related to the use of radars, computer vision, calibration and sensor data fusion in autonomous / intelligent vehicles to detect obstacles. The obstacle detection process is divided into three stages, the first one is the reading of Radar, LiDAR signals and the data capture of the stereo camera properly calibrated, the second stage is the fusion of data obtained in the previous stage(Radar + Camera, Radar + 3D LIDAR), the third step is the extraction of characteristics of the information obtained, identifying and differentiating the support plane(ground) of the obstacles, and finally realizing the detection of the obstacles resulting from the fusion of the data. Thus it is possible to differentiate types of elements identified by the Radar and that are confirmed and united to the data obtained by computational vision or LIDAR (point cloud), obtaining amore precise description of the contour, format, size and positioning of these. During the detection task it is important to locate and segment the obstacles to later make decisions regarding the control of the autonomous / intelligent vehicle. It is important to note that Radar operates in adverse conditions (little or no light, with dust or fog), but allows only isolated points representing obstacles (sparse), where on the other hand, the stereo camera and LIDAR 3D allow to define the shapeand size of objects. As for the camera, this is more susceptible to variations in lighting and to environmental and visibility restricted conditions (eg dust, haze, rain). It is important to spatially align the sensor data, calibrating the sensors appropriately, to be able to translate data provided by a sensor referenced in the coordinate system itself to another coordinate system of another sensor or to a global coordinate system. This project was developed using the CaRINA II platform developed by the LRM Laboratory ICMC / USP São Carlos. Finally, the project was implemented using the ROS, OpenCV and PCL environments, allowing experiments with real data from Radar, LIDAR and stereo camera, as well as performing an evaluation of the quality of the data fusion and detection of obstacles with these sensors .

Graças aos avanços tecnológicos nas áreas da computação, eletrônica embarcada e mecatrônica a robótica está cada vez mais presente no cotidiano da pessoas. Nessas últimas décadas, uma infinidade de ferramentas e métodos foram desenvolvidos no campo da Robótica Móvel. Um exemplo disso são os sistemas inteligentes embarcados nos veículos de passeio. Tais sistemas auxiliam na condução através de sensores que recebem informações do ambiente e algoritmos que analisam os dados e tomam decisões para realizar uma determinada tarefa, como por exemplo estacionar um carro. Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar estudos realizados no desenvolvimento de um controlador inteligente capaz de estacionar um veículo simulado em vagas paralelas, na qual seja possível entrar com uma única manobra. Para isso, foi necessário realizar estudos envolvendo a modelagem de ambientes, cinemática veicular e sensores, os quais foram implementados em um ambiente de simulação desenvolvido em C# com o Visual Studio 2008. Em seguida é realizado um estudo sobre as três etapas do estacionamento, que consistem em procurar uma vaga, posicionar o veículo e manobrá-lo. Para realizar a manobra foi adotada a trajetória em S desenvolvida e muito utilizada em outros trabalhos encontrados na literatura da área. A manobra consiste em posicionar corretamente duas circunferências com um raio de esterçamento do veículo. Sendo assim, foi utilizado um controlador robusto baseado em aprendizado supervisionado utilizando Redes Neurais Artificiais (RNA), pois esta abordagem apresenta grande robustez com relação à presença de ruídos no sistema. Este controlador recebe dados de dois sensores laser (um fixado na frente do veículo e o outro na parte traseira), da odometria e de orientação de um sensor inercial. Os dados adquiridos desses sensores e a etapa da manobra em que o veículo está, servem de entrada para o controlador. Este é capaz de interpretar tais dados e responder a esses estímulos de forma correta em aproximadamente 99% dos casos. Os resultados de treinamento e de simulação se mostraram muito satisfatórios, permitindo que o carro controlador pela RNA pudesse estacionar corretamente em uma vaga paralela. / Thanks to technological advances in the fields of computer science, embedded electronics and mechatronics, robotics is increasingly more present in people\'s lives. On the past few decades a great variety of tools and methods were developed in the Mobile Robotics field, e.g. the passenger vehicles with smart embedded systems. Such systems help drivers through sensors that acquire information from the surrounding environment and algorithms which process this data and make decisions to perform a task, like parking a car. This work aims to present the studies performed on the development of a smart controller able to park a simulated vehicle in parallel parking spaces, where a single maneuver is enough to enter. To accomplish this, studies involving the modeling of environments, vehicle kinematics and sensors were conducted, which were implemented in a simulated environment developed in C# with Visual Studio 2008. Next, a study about the three stages of parking was carried out, which consists in looking for a slot, positioning the vehicle and maneuvering it. The \"S\" trajectory was adopted and developed to maneuver the vehicle, since it is well known and highly used in related works found in the literature of this field. The maneuver consists in the correct positioning of two circumferences with the possible steering radius of the vehicle. For this task, a robust controller based on supervised learning using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) was employed, since this approach has great robustness regarding the presence of noise in the system. This controller receives data from two laser sensors (one attached on the front of the vehicle and the other on the rear), from the odometry and from the inertial orientation sensor. The data acquired from these sensors and the current maneuver stage of the vehicle are the inputs of the controller, which interprets these data and responds to these stimuli in a correct way in approximately 99% of the cases. The results of the training and simulation were satisfactory, allowing the car controlled by the ANN to correctly park in a parallel slot.

Les véhicules automobiles autonomes sont des systèmes critiques. En effet, suite à leurs défaillances, ils peuvent provoquer des dégâts catastrophiques sur l'humain et sur l'environnement dans lequel ils opèrent. Le contrôle des véhicules autonomes robotisés est une fonction complexe, qui comporte de très nombreux modes de défaillances potentiels. Dans le cas de plateformes expérimentales qui n'ont suivi ni les méthodes de développement ni le cycle de certification requis pour les systèmes industriels, les probabilités de défaillances sont beaucoup plus importantes. En effet, ces véhicules expérimentaux se heurtent à deux problèmes qui entravent leur sûreté de fonctionnement, c'est-à-dire la confiance justifiée que l'on peut avoir dans leur comportement correct. Tout d'abord, ils sont utilisés dans des environnements ouverts, au contexte d'exécution très large. Ceci rend leur validation très complexe, puisque de nombreuses heures de test seraient nécessaires, sans garantie que toutes les fautes du système soient détectées puis corrigées. De plus, leur comportement est souvent très difficile à prédire ou à modéliser. Cela peut être dû à l'utilisation des logiciels d'intelligence artificielle pour résoudre des problèmes complexes comme la navigation ou la perception, mais aussi à la multiplicité de systèmes ou composants interagissant et compliquant le comportement du système final, par exemple en générant des comportements émergents. Une technique permettant d'augmenter la sécurité-innocuité (safety) de ces systèmes autonomes est la mise en place d'un composant indépendant de sécurité, appelé « Safety-Bag ». Ce système est intégré entre l'application de contrôle-commande et les actionneurs du véhicule, ce qui lui permet de vérifier en ligne un ensemble de nécessités de sécurité, qui sont des propriétés nécessaires pour assurer la sécurité-innocuité du système. Chaque nécessité de sécurité est composée d'une condition de déclenchement et d'une intervention de sécurité appliquée quand la condition de déclenchement est violée. Cette intervention consiste soit en une inhibition de sécurité qui empêche le système d'évoluer vers un état à risques, soit en une action de sécurité afin de remettre le véhicule autonome dans un état sûr. La définition des nécessités de sécurité doit suivre une méthode rigoureuse pour être systématique. Pour ce faire, nous avons réalisé dans nos travaux une étude de sûreté de fonctionnement basée sur deux méthodes de prévision des fautes : AMDEC (Analyse des Modes de Défaillances, leurs Effets et leur Criticité) et HazOp-UML (Etude de dangers et d'opérabilité) qui mettent l'accent respectivement sur les composants internes matériels et logiciels du système et sur l'environnement routier et le processus de conduite. Le résultat de ces analyses de risques est un ensemble d'exigences de sécurité. Une partie de ces exigences de sécurité peut être traduite en nécessités de sécurité implémentables et vérifiables par le Safety-Bag. D'autres ne le peuvent pas pour que le système Safety-Bag reste un composant relativement simple et validable. Ensuite, nous avons effectué des expérimentations basées sur l'injection de fautes afin de valider certaines nécessités de sécurité et évaluer le comportement de notre Safety-Bag. Ces expériences ont été faites sur notre véhicule robotisé de type Fluence dans notre laboratoire dans deux cadres différents, sur la piste réelle SEVILLE dans un premier temps et ensuite sur la piste virtuelle simulée par le logiciel Scanner Studio sur le banc VILAD. Le Safety-Bag reste une solution prometteuse mais partielle pour des véhicules autonomes industriels. Par contre, il répond à l'essentiel des besoins pour assurer la sécurité-innocuité des véhicules autonomes expérimentaux. / Autonomous automotive vehicles are critical systems. Indeed, following their failures, they can cause catastrophic damage to the human and the environment in which they operate. The control of autonomous vehicles is a complex function, with many potential failure modes. In the case of experimental platforms that have not followed either the development methods or the certification cycle required for industrial systems, the probabilities of failure are much greater. Indeed, these experimental vehicles face two problems that impede their dependability, which is the justified confidence that can be had in their correct behavior. First, they are used in open environment, with a very wide execution context. This makes their validation very complex, since many hours of testing would be necessary, with no guarantee that all faults in the system are detected and corrected. In addition, their behavior is often very difficult to predict or model. This may be due to the use of artificial intelligence software to solve complex problems such as navigation or perception, but also to the multiplicity of systems or components interacting and complicating the behavior of the final system, for example by generating behaviors emerging. A technique to increase the safety of these autonomous systems is the establishment of an Independent Safety Component, called "Safety-Bag". This system is integrated between the control application and the actuators of the vehicle, which allows it to check online a set of safety necessities, which are necessary properties to ensure the safety of the system. Each safety necessity is composed of a safety trigger condition and a safety intervention applied when the safety trigger condition is violated. This intervention consists of either a safety inhibition that prevents the system from moving to a risk state, or a safety action to return the autonomous vehicle to a safe state. The definition of safety necessities must follow a rigorous method to be systematic. To do this, we carried out in our work a study of dependability based on two fault prevention methods: FMEA and HazOp-UML, that respectively focus on the internal hardware and software components of the system and on the road environment and driving process. The result of these risk analyzes is a set of safety requirements. Some of these safety requirements can be translated into safety necessities, implementable and verifiable by the Safety-Bag. Others cannot be implemented in the Safety-Bag. The latter must remain simple so that it is easy to be validated. Then, we carried out experiments based on the faults injection in order to validate some safety necessities and to evaluate the Safety-Bag's behavior. These experiments were done on our robotic vehicle type Fluence in our laboratory in two different settings, on the actual track SEVILLE at first and then on the virtual track simulated by the Scanner Studio software on the VILAD testbed. The Safety-Bag remains a promising but partial solution for autonomous industrial vehicles. On the other hand, it meets the essential needs for the safety of experimental autonomous vehicles.

Les travaux de cette thèse portent sur la navigation des véhicules autonomes, notamment la planification de trajectoires et le contrôle du véhicule. En premier lieu, un modèle véhicule plan est développé en utilisant une technique de modélisation qui assimile le véhicule à un robot constitué de plusieurs corps articulés. La description géométrique du véhicule est basée sur la convention de Denavit-Hartenberg modifiée. Le modèle dynamique du véhicule est ensuite calculé en utilisant la méthode récursive de Newton-Euler, qui est souvent utilisée dans le domaine de robotique. La validation du modèle a été conduite sur le simulateur Scaner-Studio développé par Oktal pour les applications automobiles. Le modèle du véhicule développé est ensuite utilisé pour la synthèse de lois de commande couplées pour les dynamiques longitudinale et latérale du véhicule. Deux correcteurs sont proposés dans ce travail : le premier est basé sur les techniques de commande par Lyapunov, le second utilise une approche ”Immersion et Invariance”. Ces deux contrôleurs ont pour objectifs de suivre une trajectoire de référence donnée avec un profil de vitesse désirée, tout en tenant compte du couplage existant entre les dynamiques longitudinale et latérale du véhicule. En effet, le contrôle couplé est nécessaire pour garantir la sécurité du véhicule autonome surtout lors de l’exécution des manœuvres couplées comme les manœuvres de changement de voie, les manœuvres d’évitement d’obstacles et les manœuvres exécutées dans les situations de conduite critiques. Les contrôleurs développés ont été validés en simulation sous Matlab/Simulink en utilisant des données expérimentales. Par la suite, ces contrôleurs ont été validés expérimentalement en utilisant le véhicule démonstrateur robotisé (Renault-Zoé) du laboratoire Heudiasyc financé par l’Equipex Robotex. En ce qui concerne la planification de trajectoires, une méthode de planification basée sur la méthode des tentacules sous forme de clothoides a été développée. En outre, une méthode de planification de manœuvres qui s’intéresse essentiellement à la manœuvre de dépassement a été mise en place, afin d’améliorer et de compléter la méthode locale des tentacules. Le planificateur local et le planificateur de manœuvres ont été ensuite combinés pour établir une stratégie de navigation complète. Cette stratégie a été validée par la suite sous Matlab/Simulink en utilisant le modèle de véhicule développé et le contrôleur basé sur Lyapunov. / In this thesis, the trajectory planning and the control of autonomous vehicles are addressed. As a first step, a multi-body modeling technique is used to develop a four wheeled vehicle planar model. This technique considers the vehicle as a robot consisting of articulated bodies. The geometric description of the vehicle system is derived using the modified Denavit Hartenberg parameterization and then the dynamic model of the vehicle is computed by applying a recursive method used in robotics, namely Newton-Euler based Algorithm. The validation of the developed vehicle model was then conducted using an automotive simulator developed by Oktal, the Scaner-Studio simulator. The developed vehicle model is then used to derive coupled control laws for the lateral and the longitudinal vehicle dynamics. Two coupled controllers are proposed in this thesis: In the first controller, the control is designed using Lyapunov control techniques while in the second one an Immersion and Invariance approach is used. Both of the controllers aim to ensure a robust tracking of the reference trajectory and the desired speed while taking into account the strong coupling between the lateral and the longitudinal vehicle dynamics. In fact, the coupled controller is a key step for the vehicle safety handling, especially in coupled maneuvers such as lane-change maneuvers, obstacle avoidance maneuvers and combined maneuvers in critical driving situations. The developed controllers were validated in simulation under Matlab/Simulink using experimental data. Subsequently, an experimental validation of the proposed controllers was conducted using a robotized vehicle (Renault-ZOE) present in the Heudiasyc laboratory within the Equipex Robotex project. Concerning the trajectory planning, a local planning method based on the clothoid tentacles method is developed. Moreover, a maneuver planning strategy focusing on the overtaking maneuver is developed to improve and complete the local planning approach. The local and the maneuver planners are then combined in order to establish a complete navigation strategy. This strategy is then validated using the developed robotics vehicle model and the Lyapunov based controller under Matlab/Simulink.

Thesis: S.M., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2018. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-99). / In terms of national security, the advancement of unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) technology has transformed UUVs from tools for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and mine countermeasures to autonomous platforms that can perform complex tasks like tracking submarines, jamming, and smart mining. Today, they play a major role in asymmetric warfare, as UUVs have attributes that are desirable for less-established navies. They are covert, easy to deploy, low-cost, and low-risk to personnel. The concern of protecting against UUVs of malicious intent is that existing defense systems fall short in detecting, tracking, and preventing the vehicles from causing harm. Addressing this gap in technology, this thesis is the first to demonstrate passively detecting and tracking UUVs in realistic environments strictly from the vehicle's self-generated noise. This work contributes the first power spectral density estimate of an underway micro-UUV, field experiments in a pond and river detecting a UUV with energy thresholding and spectral filters, and field experiments in a pond and river tracking a UUV using conventional and adaptive beamforming. The spectral filters resulted in a probability of detection of 96 % and false alarms of 18 % at a distance of 100 m, with boat traffic in a river environment. Tracking the vehicle with adaptive beamforming resulted in a 6.2 ± 5.7° absolute difference in bearing. The principal achievement of this work is to quantify how well a UUV can be covertly tracked with knowledge of its spectral features. This work can be implemented into existing passive acoustic surveillance systems and be applied to larger classes of UUVs, which potentially have louder identifying acoustic signatures. / by Kristen Elizabeth Railey. / S.M.