一种基于有限状态机模型的局部转向避碰路径规划算法

针对多礁石、渔船等障碍物的近海复杂环境下的一些应用,提出了一种基于有限状态机(finite-state machine,FSM)模型的无人船(unmanned surface vehicle,USV)局部转向避碰路径规划算法。首先,基于速度障碍法和障碍物区域分层方法,获取无人船固定航速条件下的航向角约束解析结果。然后,基于该约束条件及障碍物探测情况设计FSM的有限状态及执行动作和状态迁移条件,其中,通过转向控制实现向目标位点或缓冲位点进行导航的状态为FSM的2个重要状态。最终通过FSM的执行实现局部转向避碰路径规划。仿真结果表明提出的多障碍物避碰算法具有可行性和实用性。该方法易于改进和扩展,且容易与当前主流的无人船控制系统结合,有利于无人船避碰系统快速工程化的实现。     

多障碍环境中基于增强式学习的势场优化和机器人路径规划

该文把增强式学习方法应用于多障碍环境中机器人路径规划 ,并将增强式学习和路径规划相结合 ,通过工作空间势场的自适应优化学习 ,实现机器人的全局路径规划 ,即得到从任何初始位置开始的最优路径。与传统的人工势场方法相比 ,该方法避免了势场中局部极小点所引起的陷阱区域 ,并且所得到的路径具有最优特性。计算机仿真实验结果表明 ,这种学习方法能有效的解决多障碍环境中的机器人路径规划问题     

Underwater vehicle obstacle avoidance and path planning using amulti-beam forward looking sonar

This paper describes a new framework for segmentation of sonar images, tracking of underwater objects and motion estimation. This framework is applied to the design of an obstacle avoidance and path planning system for underwater vehicles based on a multi-beam forward looking sonar sensor. The real-time data flow (acoustic images) at the input of the system is first segmented and relevant features are extracted. We also take advantage of the real-time data stream to track the obstacles in following frames to obtain their dynamic characteristics. This allows us to optimize the preprocessing phases in segmenting only the relevant part of the images. Once the static (size and shape) as well as dynamic characteristics (velocity, acceleration,…) of the obstacles have been computed, we create a representation of the vehicle's workspace based on these features. This representation uses constructive solid geometry (CSG) to create a convex set of obstacles defining the workspace. The tracking takes also into account obstacles which are no longer in the field of view of the sonar in the path planning phase. A well-proven nonlinear search (sequential quadratic programming) is then employed, where obstacles are expressed as constraints in the search space. This approach is less affected by local minima than classical methods using potential fields. The proposed system is not only capable of obstacle avoidance but also of path planning in complex environments which include fast moving obstacles. Results obtained on real sonar data are shown and discussed. Possible applications to sonar servoing and real-time motion estimation are also discussed     

Path Planning Method Based on D~* lite Algorithm for Unmanned Surface Vehicles in Complex Environments

In recent decades, path planning for unmanned surface vehicles(USVs) in complex environments, such as harbours and coastlines, has become an important concern. The existing algorithms for real-time path planning for USVs are either too slow at replanning or unreliable in changing environments with multiple dynamic obstacles. In this study,we developed a novel path planning method based on the D* lite algorithm for real-time path planning of USVs in complex environments. The proposed method has the following advantages:(1) the computational time for replanning is reduced significantly owing to the use of an incremental algorithm and a new method for modelling dynamic obstacles;(2) a constrained artificial potential field method is employed to enhance the safety of the planned paths; and(3) the method is practical in terms of vehicle performance. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated through simulations and compared with those of existing algorithms. The simulation results confirmed the efficiency of the method for real-time path planning of USVs in complex environments.     

一种基于改进蚁群算法的载人潜水器全局路径规划

当前关于使用蚁群算法解决载人潜水器路径规划问题的研究,往往只注重路径的长度和算法收敛速度,容易忽略路径点与障碍物之间的距离和路径的平滑度等要素。载人潜水器过于靠近障碍物航行时容易产生碰撞;按照不平滑路径行驶时,频繁地转向会降低航行效率。为解决这些问题,受人工势场法启发,文中在蚁群算法的概率选择环节引入障碍物惩罚因子φ和转向惩罚因子ψ,对路径点的选择加以限制。仿真测试表明,相比于传统蚁群算法和Dijkstra算法,该算法规划的路径与障碍物之间保持安全距离且转向次数更少,因此载人潜水器按照此路径航行时,安全性和航行效率更高。     

A technique for autonomous underwater vehicle route planning

If an underwater vehicle is to be completely autonomous, it must have the ability to plan paths around obstacles in order to operate safely. Many solutions to the problem of planning the path of a robot around obstacles have been proposed, but all are limited in some way. An algorithm using artificial potential fields to aid in path planning is presented. The planning consists of applying potential fields around obstacles and using these fields to select a safe path. The advantage of using potential fields is that they offer a relatively fast and effective way to solve for safe paths. A trial path is chosen and then modified under the influence of the potential field until an appropriate path is found. By considering the entire path, the problem of being trapped in a local minimum is greatly reduced, allowing the method to be used for global planning. The algorithm was tried with success on many different planning problems. The examples provided illustrate the algorithm's application to two- and three-dimensional planning problems     

Layered berthing method and experiment of unmanned surface vehicle based on multiple constraints analysis

Considering the dynamic changes of unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in berthing tasks, the planning and control modes are divided into two phases: the remote phase and the terminal phase. According to the main influencing factors of the two phases, an improved artificial potential field method is proposed to complete autonomous berthing trajectory planning based on the analysis of environment constraint, berth point constraint and USV’s dynamics constraint. Combining with the dynamic characteristics and control objectives at different phases of berthing and analyzing the fuzzy rule regulation strategy of USV’s heading and speed control, an improved adaptive fuzzy PID control method is proposed to solve the control problem of USV, which is influenced by weak maneuver, large disturbance, limited water area and strong shore effect. Finally, the comparative test of berthing simulation verifies the superiority of the proposed control method. The autonomous berthing field experiment is completed based on the "Dolphin-I" small USV. It verifies the validity and feasibility of the proposed autonomous berthing method.     

A task-based hierarchical control strategy for autonomous motion of an unmanned surface vehicle swarm

In this paper, a hierarchical control framework with relevant algorithms is proposed to achieve autonomous navigation for an underactuated unmanned surface vehicle (USV) swarm. In order to implement automatic target tracking, obstacle avoidance and avoid collisions between group members, the control framework is divided into three layers based on task assignments: flocking strategy design, motion planning and control input design. The flocking strategy design transmits some basic orders to swarm members. Motion planning applies the potential function method and then improves it; thus, the issue of autonomous control is transformed into one of designing the velocity vector. In the last layer, the control inputs (surge force and yaw moment) are designed using the sliding mode method, and the problem of underactuation is handled synchronously. The proposed closed-loop controller is shown to be semi-asymptotically stable by applying Lyapunov stability theory, and the effectiveness of the proposed methodology is demonstrated via numeric simulations of a homogeneous USV swarm.     

基于分区自适应阈值的声呐障碍物检测算法研究

针对UUV避碰声呐探测障碍物过程中自主选择分割阈值进行障碍物检测的问题,提出了基于分区自适应阈值的障碍物检测算法。首先将避碰声呐图像均匀分为相同大小的图像块,对每个图像块基于最大类间方差算法确定该区域障碍物图像分割的高低阈值,然后对检测到的障碍物进行形态学处理去除孤立噪声点,对目标区域进行连通性分析及内部空洞处理,最终得到完整的障碍物轮廓信息。通过湖试数据验证表明了该方法对声呐障碍物检测的有效性。     

多光谱遥感水深反演及其水下碍航物探测技术

针对采用传统海洋测量手段难以获取危险及争议海区的水深和水下碍航物信息,提出了基于卫星遥感进行水深反演和水下碍航物探测的新思路。探讨了多光谱遥感水深反演的数据预处理方法、遥感水深反演模型的构建及水下碍航物遥感探测方法,并开展了相应的实验验证。实验表明,采用卫星遥感手段可以快速地获取测量船只不易到达海区的水深和水下碍航物信息,研究成果对海洋测绘技术的发展具有一定的指导意义和应用价值。     

Smoothed A* algorithm for practical unmanned surface vehicle path planning

An effective path planning or route planning algorithm is essential for guiding unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) between way points or along a trajectory. The A* algorithm is one of the most efficient algorithms for calculating a safe route with the shortest distance cost. However, the route generated by the conventional A* algorithm is constrained by the resolution of the map and it may not be compatible with the non-holonomic constraint of the USV. In this paper an improved A* algorithm has been proposed and applied to the Springer USV. A new path smoothing process with three path smoothers has been developed to improve the performance of the generated route, reducing unnecessary ‘jags’, having no redundant waypoints and offering a more continuous route. Both simulation and experimental results show that the smoothed A* algorithm outperforms the conventional algorithm in both sparse and cluttered environments that have been uniformly rasterised. It has been demonstrated that the proposed improved A* route planning algorithm can be applied to the Springer USV providing promising results when tracking trajectories.     

Trajectory-cell based method for the unmanned surface vehicle motion planning

A trajectory-cell based method was proposed for unmanned surface vehicle (USV) motion planning to combine the expression of the dynamic constraints and the discretization of the search space. The dynamic constraints were expressed by the USV trajectories produced by the mathematical model. The search space was performed by the discretization rules with the consideration of the path continuity, the search convenience and the maneuvering simplification. Therefore, the trajectory-cells were the discretized trajectories, which made the search space meet the USV dynamic constraints, and guaranteed the final spliced path continuous. After abstracting the characteristics of those cells, the available waypoints and headings were represented as the search indexes. Finally, a trajectory-cell based path searching strategy was proposed by determining the cost function of the A* algorithm. The results showed that the proposed algorithm can plan a practical motion path for the USV.     

Three-Dimensional Numerical Model for Tsunami Propagation Passing Through An Obstacle

1 .Introduction In the present numerical analysis of a tsunami ,atwo-dimensional numerical model based on non-linear shallowwater theoryis mainly used (Aburaya and Imamura ,2002 ;Imamura ,1995 ; Goto andOgawa ,1992) .Thoughthis model representstsunami hei…     

一种新型无人船海洋水深测量技术

在海洋测深中,由于波浪和潮汐的影响,调查船或无人船所测量的瞬时水深不能直接作为海图水深。本文提出了一种新型的无人船海洋水深测量技术,以评估搭载RTK和单波束测深仪的无人船用于海洋水深测量的潜能。首先,使用无人船所搭载RTK的厘米级精度高程数据,通过低通滤波剔除波浪信息,而获得海平面高程。然后,基于潮汐表和无人船海平面高程,构建了一种参考椭球面和海图的两个基准面之差的获取方法;在常规的海洋调查中,该基准面差通常需要由长期的验潮获得。最后,利用海图基准和无人船测量的瞬时水深的转换关系,计算出海图水深。在海南省蜈支洲岛周边海域,利用自研发的无人船“USBV”开展了相关海上实验,以验证所提出的技术方法。实验结果验证了该无人船海洋水深测量技术。     

无人船运动控制方法综述

为实现无人船海上自主作业,无人船运动控制的快速性、准确性以及鲁棒性亟待提高。首先从全驱动控制和欠驱动控制角度,分别概括了国内外无人船航向控制、航速控制、轨迹跟踪控制以及路径跟踪控制的主流控制方法。其次,归纳总结了处理海洋环境不确定扰动的研究进展,包括扰动的建模和消除、抑制扰动的主流方法。最后,总结了无人船运动控制现状与存在的问题,并从工程应用和理论研究两个角度对未来的研究方向进行了展望。     

Real-time path planning and obstacle avoidance for RAIS: anautonomous underwater vehicle

This paper describes a navigation and guidance system (NGS) with real-time path planning and obstacle avoidance capabilities that has been developed for the autonomous underwater vehicle RAIS. The vehicle is designed to accomplish two missions: pre-deployment survey of sea bottom, and visual inspection of pipelines. In the first mission, the NGS must be able to track a predefined path while avoiding the unplanned occurrence of obstacles. In the second mission, the NGS must track a pipeline by locally reconstructing its location from visual information; also in this case, the unplanned occurrence of obstacles must be handled. Furthermore, the NGS must properly take into account the presence of ocean current and some drastic constraints due to sensor and actuator characteristics. Numerical and hardware-in-the-loop simulations have been developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed NGS     

基于Level-set法和通度概念液体晃荡特性研究

液体晃荡现象在诸多工程领域具有深刻的研究意义,并引起了广泛的关注。基于Level-set方法,借助流场通度的概念,模拟了流场内具有障碍物的液体晃荡现象。选取不同形式的防晃结构分析研究对晃荡的抑制效果,得到几点关于防晃结构的设计与选择的重要结论。计算结果表明,通度系数法与Level-set方法的结合使用,能够有效地处理流场内带有障碍物的液体晃荡问题,该方法具有一定的可行性和应用前景。     

Radar-based collision avoidance for unmanned surface vehicles

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) have become a focus of research because of their extensive applications. To ensure safety and reliability and to perform complex tasks autonomously, USVs are required to possess accurate perception of the environment and effective collision avoidance capabilities. To achieve these, investigation into realtime marine radar target detection and autonomous collision avoidance technologies is required, aiming at solving the problems of noise jamming, uneven brightness, target loss, and blind areas in marine radar images. These technologies should also satisfy the requirements of real-time and reliability related to high navigation speeds of USVs. Therefore, this study developed an embedded collision avoidance system based on the marine radar, investigated a highly real-time target detection method which contains adaptive smoothing algorithm and robust segmentation algorithm, developed a stable and reliable dynamic local environment model to ensure the safety of USV navigation, and constructed a collision avoidance algorithm based on velocity obstacle (V-obstacle) which adjusts the USV’s heading and speed in real-time. Sea trials results in multi-obstacle avoidance firstly demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed avoidance system, and then verify its great adaptability and relative stability when a USV sailing in a real and complex marine environment. The obtained results will improve the intelligent level of USV and guarantee the safety of USV independent sailing.     

Information fusion model-free adaptive control algorithm and unmanned surface vehicle heading control

Based on the model-free adaptive control (MFAC) theory, the heading control problem of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with uncertainties is explored. First, as a USV’s heading subsystem does not satisfy the quasilinear assumption of the MFAC theory, a new type of input and output information fusion MFAC, i.e., the IOIF–MFAC algorithm is proposed. The novel algorithm proposed herein renders the MFAC theory applicable to the heading control of USVs. Next, the input and output information of the heading subsystem, namely the rudder angle and heading angle, are combined, and the data model of the heading subsystem is subsequently deduced using a compact format dynamic linearization method. Based on which, the stability of the control system is proved. Finally, the effectiveness and practicability of the IOIF–MFAC algorithm are verified by simulation and field experiments through the “Dolphin IB” test platform developed by our group.     

Higher Harmonics Induced by Waves Propagating over A Submerged Obstacle in the Presence of Uniform Current

To investigate higher harmonics induced by a submerged obstacle in the presence of uniform current, a 2D fully nonlinear numerical wave flume（NWF） is developed by use of a time-domain higher-order boundary element method（HOBEM） based on potential flow theory. A four-point method is developed to decompose higher bound and free harmonic waves propagating upstream and downstream around the obstacle. The model predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data for free harmonics induced by a submerged horizontal cylinder in the absence of currents. This serves as a benchmark to reveal the current effects on higher harmonic waves. The peak value of non-dimensional second free harmonic amplitude is shifted upstream for the opposing current relative to that for zero current with the variation of current-free incident wave amplitude, and it is vice versa for the following current. The second-order analysis shows a resonant behavior which is related to the ratio of the cylinder diameter to the second bound mode wavelength over the cylinder. The second-order resonant position slightly downshifted for the opposing current and upshifted for the following current.