Planning the path of an autonomous,agile vehicle in a dynamicenvironment is a very complex problem, especially when the vehicle is required to use its full maneuvering capabilities. Recent efforts aimed at using randomized algorithms for planning the path of kinematic and dynamic vehicles have demonstrated considerable potential for implementation on future autonomous platforms. This paper builds upon these efforts by proposing a randomized path planning architecture for dynamical systems in the presence of xed and moving obstacles. This architecture addresses the dynamic constraints on the vehicle's motion, and it provides at the same time a consistent decoupling between low-level control and motion planning. The path planning algorithm retains the convergence properties of its kinematic counterparts. System safety is also addressed in the face of nite computation times by analyzing the behavior of the algorithm when the available onboard computation resources are limited, and the planning must be performed in real time. The proposed algorithm can be applied to vehicles whose dynamics are described either by ordinary differential equations or by higher-level, hybrid representations. Simulation examples involving a ground robot and a small autonomous helicopter are presented and discussed.

Preliminary results of a new computational approach to generate aggressive trajectories in real-time for constrained mechanical systems are presented. The algorithm is based on a combination of nonlinear control theory, spline theory, and sequential quadratic programming. It is demonstrated that real-time trajectory generation for constrained mechanical systems is possible by mapping the problem to one of finding trajectory curves in a lower dimensional space. Performance of the algorithm is compared with existing optimal trajectory generation techniques. Numerical results are reported using the NTG software package. Keywords: Real-time optimization, nonlinear control design, optimal control, constrained trajectory generation, guidance. 1

Autonomous unmanned air vehicle flight control systems require robust path generation to account for terrain obstructions, weather, and moving threats such as radar, jammers, and unfriendly aircraft. In this paper, we outline a feasible, hierarchal approach for real-time motion planning of small autonomous fixed-wing UAVs. The approach divides the trajectory generation into four tasks: waypoint path planning, dynamic trajectory smoothing, trajectory tracking, and low-level autopilot compensation. The waypoint path planner determines the vehicle 's route without regard for the dynamic constraints of the vehicle. This results in a significant reduction in the path search space, enabling the generation of complicated paths that account for pop-up and dynamically moving threats. Kinematic constraints are satisfied using a trajectory smoother which has the same kinematic structure as the physical vehicle. The third step of the approach uses a novel tracking algorithm to generate a feasible state trajectory that can be followed by a standard autopilot. Monte-Carlo simulations were done to analyze the performance and feasibility of the approach and determine real-time computation requirements. A planar version of the algorithm has also been implemented and tested in a low-cost micro-controller. The paper describes a custom UAV built to test the algorithms.

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In this paper, we consider a special class of underactuated mechanical systems with two degrees of freedom and symmetry. By symmetry, we mean the inertia matrix of the system is independent of the unactuated degree of freedom. We show that there exists a natural global change of coordinates obtained from the Lagrangian of the system that transforms the system into a partially linear cascade nonlinear system that is strict feedback. The nonlinear part of this system is non-a#ne in control and this highly complicates control design for the system. We provide conditions under which this nonlinear subsystem can be globally stabilized and give globally stabilizing control laws for it. The strict feedback structure of the system in new coordinates allows us to obtain a globally stabilizing control law for the composite system using standard backstepping. We apply our result to global asymptotic stabilization of the Acrobot.

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Abstract—A general control design approach for the sta-bilization of controllable driftless nonlinear systems on finite dimensional Lie groups is presented. The approach is based on the concept of bounded transverse functions, the existence of which is equivalent to the system’s controllability. Its outcome is the practical stabilization of any trajectory, i.e., not necessarily a solution of the control system, in the state–space. The possibility of applying the approach to an arbitrary controllable smooth driftless system follows in turn from the fact that any controllable homogeneous approximation of this system can be lifted (via a dynamic extension) to a system on a Lie group. Illustrative examples are given. Index Terms—Feedback law, Lie groups, nonlinear systems, stabilization.

Abstract—This paper presents a steering method for a car-like vehicle providing smooth paths subjected to curvature constraints. We show how to integrate this steering method in a global motion planning scheme taking obstacles into account. The main idea of the paper is to consider the car as a 4-D system from a kinematic point of view and as a 3-D system from a geometric point of view of collision checking. The resulting planned motions are guaranteed to be collision-free and between two cusp points. Index Terms—Nonholonomic car-like robot, smooth motion planning. I.

Lagrangian control systems that are differentially flat with flat outputs that only depend on configuration variables are said to be configuration flat. We provide a complete characterisation of configuration flatness for systems with n degrees of freedom and n - 1 controls whose range of control forces only depends on configuration and whose Lagrangian has the form of kinetic energy minus potential. The method presented allows us to determine if such a system is configuration flat and, if so provides a constructive method for finding all possible configuration flat outputs. Our characterisation relates configuration flatness to Riemannian geometry. We illustrate the method by two examples.

This report is concerned with the problem of motion generation via cyclic variations in selected degrees of freedom (usually referred to as shape variables) in mechanical systems subject to nonholonomic constraints (here the classical one of a disk rolling without sliding on a at surface). In earlier work, we identi ed an interesting class of such problems arising in the setting of Lie groups, and investigated these under a hypothesis on constraints, that naturally led to a purely kinematic approach. In the present work, the hypothesis on constraints does not hold, and as a consequence, it is necessary to take into account certain dynamical phenomena. Speci cally we concern ourselves with the group SE(2) of rigid motions in the plane and a concrete mechanical realization dubbed the 2{node, 1{module SE(2){snake. In a restricted version, it is also known as the Roller Racer (a patented ride/toy). Based on the work of Bloch, Krishnaprasad, Marsden and Murray, one recognizes in the example of this report a balance law called the momentum equation, which is a direct consequence of the interaction of the SE(2){symmetry of the problem with the