Category Archives: papers

Cooperative Transport by ASVs

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Differential Geometric Approach to Trajectory Planning: Cooperative Transport by a Team of Autonomous Marine Vehicles

Hadi Hajieghrary, Dhanushka Kularatne, and M. Ani Hsieh

Abstract: In this paper we addressed the cooperative transport problem for a team of autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) towing a single buoyant load. We consider the dynamics of the constrained system and decompose the cooperative transport problem into a collection of subproblems. Each subproblem consists of an ASV and load pair where each ASV is attached to the load at the same point. Since the system states evolve on a smooth manifold, we use the tools from differential geometry to model the holonomic constraint arising from the cooperative transport problem and the non-holonomic constraints arising from the ASV dynamics. We then synthesize distributed feedback control strategies using the proposed mathematical modeling framework to enable the team transport the load on a desired trajectory. We experimentally validate the proposed strategy using a team of micro ASVs.

Status: To be presented at ACC 2018.  Preprint to come.

Path Planning with Forecast Uncertainties

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Optimal Path Planning in Time-Varying Flows with Forecasting Uncertainties

Dhanushka Kularatne, Hadi Hajieghrary, and M. Ani Hsieh

Abstract: Uncertainties in flow models have to be explicitly considered for effective path planning in marine environments. In this paper, we present two methods to compute minimum expected cost policies and paths over an uncertain flow model. The first method based on a Markov Decision Process computes a minimum expected cost policy while the second graph search based method, computes a minimum expected cost path. A transition probability model is developed to compute the probability of transition from one state to another under a given action. In addition, a method to compute the expected cost of a path when it is executed in an uncertain flow field is also presented. The two methods are used to compute minimum energy paths in an ocean environment and the results are analyzed in simulations.

Status: To be presented at ICRA 2018 in Brisbane, Australia.  Preprint to come.