A snake-based scheme for path planning and control with constraints by distributed visual sensors

Cheng, Y.; Jiang, P.; Hu, Y. F.

Abstract

This paper proposes a robot navigation scheme using wireless visual sensors deployed in an environment. Different from the conventional autonomous robot approaches, the scheme intends to relieve massive on-board information processing required by a robot to its environment so that a robot or a vehicle with less intelligence can exhibit sophisticated mobility. A three-state snake mechanism is developed for coordinating a series of sensors to form a reference path. Wireless visual sensors communicate internal forces with each other along the reference snake for dynamic adjustment, react to repulsive forces from obstacles, and activate a state change in the snake body from a flexible state to a rigid or even to a broken state due to kinematic or environmental constraints. A control snake is further proposed as a tracker of the reference path, taking into account the robot’s non-holonomic constraint and limited steering power. A predictive control algorithm is developed to have an optimal velocity profile under robot dynamic constraints for the snake tracking. They together form a unified solution for robot navigation by distributed sensors to deal with the kinematic and dynamic constraints of a robot and to react to dynamic changes in advance. Simulations and experiments demonstrate the capability of a wireless sensor network to carry out low-level control activities for a vehicle.

• Publication Date: 2014-07
• Journal: Robotica
• Print ISSN: 0263-5747
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-8668
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 477-499
• APA6 Citation: Cheng, Y., Jiang, P., & Hu, Y. F. (2014). A snake-based scheme for path planning and control with constraints by distributed visual sensors. Robotica, 32(4), 477-499. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263574713000805
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263574713000805
• Keywords: Snake algorithm; Wireless visual sensors; Mobile robot navigation; Distributed robot system
• Publisher URL: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9270822&fileId=S0263574713000805
• Copyright Statement: © Cambridge University Press 2013. The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence . The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use.
• Additional Information: Copy of article first published in: Robotica, 2014, v.32, issue 4.