Guidance Based Methods for Real-Time Navigation of Mobile Robots

Real-time motion-planning in autonomous vehicle navigation applications has typically referred to the on-line trajectory-planning problem to reach a designated location in minimal time. In this context, past research achievements have been subjected to three main limitations: (i) only the problem of interception (position matching) has been considered, whereas the problem of rendezvous (velocity matching) has not been rigorously investigated; (ii) obstacles have been commonly treated as moving with constant velocity as opposed to being highly maneuverable and following a priori unknown trajectories; and, (iii) mostly, structured indoor terrains have been considered. This book addresses the above drawbacks by proposing the use of guidance-based methods that can be used by an autonomous vehicle to accurately and safely maneuver in the presence of dynamic obstacles on realistic terrains. The objective is time-optimal rendezvous with static or dynamic targets. The proposed methods minimizes rendezvous time and energy consumption, by directly considering the dynamics of the obstacles and the target, while accurately determining a feasible way to travel through an uneven terrain.

Autorentext

Dr Faraz completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2008. The focus of his research was motion planning and navigation of mobile robots. Presently, he is in-charge of the Unmanned Vehicles Lab in Dept of Mechatronics at College of E&ME(NUST) Pakistan. This group is working on a number of interesting projects.