Trajectory Guidance Research Articles

Human–robot cooperative object transportation with intention-driven manipulation and trajectory guidance

Human–robot cooperative object transportation with intention-driven manipulation and trajectory guidance

Bio-inspired machine-learning aided geo-magnetic field based AUV navigation system

The navigational accuracy of sea animals and trans-ocean birds provides inspiration in using geo-magnetic field (GMF) for realizing strategic truly autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) capable of determining their absolute position on earth, without the aid of ship-referenced acoustic baseline systems. Supervised Machine Learning algorithms are applied on the GMF intensity data obtained from NOAA World Magnetic Model for a 900 km2 within the Indian mineral exploratory area in the Central Indian Ocean, with a resolution of 50 m, considering the sensitivity of commercially available magnetometers. It is identified that, for AUVs equipped with magnetometers with a detection sensitivity of 0.1 nT, the supervisory random forest regression and decision tree algorithm trained with priori GMF data, could provide trajectory guidance to AUVs with an absolute mean position accuracy in 2D plane, with reference to the last known position from Integrated Navigation system aided initially with GPS and with acoustic positioning in underwater. Circular Error Probable (CEP 50) of 53 m and 56 m, respectively. The scalar GMF anomaly navigation demonstrated to be a viable GPS-alternative navigation system could be extended to larger areas with inclination and declination vectors, as unique identifiers.

Research on Time-Cooperative Guidance with Evasive Maneuver for Multiple Underwater Intelligent Vehicles

In order to achieve the precise attack of multiple underwater intelligent vehicles (UIVs) on the same target ship at a fixed impact time, and to improve the penetration capability of the UIVs themselves, this study investigated the guidance law for the time-cooperative guidance of UIVs with maneuvering evasion. The evasive maneuver of the UIV increases the line-of-sight angle between the UIV and the target, which decreases the guidance precision of the UIV. A segmented control strategy is proposed to solve the problem of decreasing guidance precision caused by evading maneuvers, which is also the main contribution of this paper. This control strategy is dividing the guidance trajectory into two segments. The first segment allows for intelligent underwater vehicles to make evasion maneuvers and penetrate the defense, while the second segment controls the terminal time and achieves precision strike. Different desired target-vehicle distances are designed for each segment, unifying the impact time control issue and evasion maneuver problem into the pursuit of desired target-vehicle distances. Finally, based on feedback linearization control theory, a time-cooperative guidance law with evasion maneuver capability is proposed. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method in attacking-moving targets.

Enhancing Tai Chi Training System: Towards Group-Based and Hyper-Realistic Training Experiences.

In this article, we propose a lightweight and flexible enhanced Tai Chi training system composed of multiple standalone virtual reality (VR) devices. The system aims to enable a hyper-realistic multi-user action training platform at low cost by displaying real-time action guidance trajectories, providing real-world impossible visual effects and functions, and rapidly enhancing movement precision and communication interest for learners. We objectively evaluate participants' action quality at different levels of immersion, including traditional coach guidance (TCG), VR, and mixed reality (MR), along with subjective measures like motion sickness, quality of interaction, social meaning, presence/immersion to comprehensively explore the system's feasibility. The results indicate VR performs the best in training accuracy, but MR provides superior social experience and relatively high accuracy. Unlike TCG, MR offers hyper-realistic hand movement trajectories and Tai Chi social references. Compared with VR, MR provides more realistic avatar companions and a safer environment. In summary, MR balances accuracy and social experience.

DDPG-Based Convex Programming Algorithm for the Midcourse Guidance Trajectory of Interceptor

To address the problem of low accuracy and efficiency in trajectory planning algorithms for interceptors facing multiple constraints during the midcourse guidance phase, an improved trajectory convex programming method based on the lateral distance domain is proposed. This algorithm can achieve fast trajectory planning, reduce the approximation error of the planned trajectory, and improve the accuracy of trajectory guidance. First, the concept of lateral distance domain is proposed, and the motion model of the midcourse guidance segment in the interceptor is converted from the time domain to the lateral distance domain. Second, the motion model and multiple constraints are convexly and discretely transformed, and the discrete trajectory convex model is established in the lateral distance domain. Third, the deep reinforcement learning algorithm is used to learn and train the initial solution of trajectory convex programming, and a high-quality initial solution trajectory is obtained. Finally, a dynamic adjustment method based on the distribution of approximate solution errors is designed to achieve efficient dynamic adjustment of grid points in iterative solving. The simulation experiments show that the improved trajectory convex programming algorithm proposed in this paper not only improves the accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm but also has good optimization performance.

Event-Based Guidance and Incremental Control with Application to Fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Perched Landing Maneuvers

Considering the nonlinearity and unknown dynamics of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles in perched landing maneuvers, an event-based online guidance and incremental control scheme is proposed. The guidance trajectory for perched landing must be dynamically feasible therefore an event-based trapezoidal collocation point optimization method is proposed. Introduction of the triggering mechanism for the rational use of computing resources to improve PL accuracy. Furthermore, a filter-based incremental nonlinear dynamic inverse (F-INDI) control with state transformation is proposed to achieve robust trajectory tracking under high angle of attack (AOA). The F-INDI uses low-pass filters to obtain incremental dynamics of the system, which simplifies the design process. The state transformation strategy is to convert the flight-path angle, AOA and velocity into two composite dynamics, which avoids the sign reversal problem of control gain under high AOA. The stability analysis shows that the original states can be controlled only by controlling the composite state. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves high perched landing accuracy and a reliable trajectory tracking control.

An adaptive internal model control approach for unmanned surface vehicle based on bidirectional long short-term memory neural network: Implementation and field testing

This paper investigates a practical adaptive internal model control (IMC) for an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) with unknown time-varying nonlinear model parameters and environmental disturbances. Firstly, an internal model of the USV is presented using the Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) neural network. Then, an adaptive neural IMC controller is designed for the trajectory tracking of USV by using the IMC method. The internal model and the controller are updated by an error threshold algorithm. The proposed control scheme comprises of a trajectory guidance module via the Line-of-Sight (LOS) guidance method and a tracking control module designed by IMC theory. Under the proposed control scheme, the development processes of the vehicle platform and the control algorithms are described, and accurate tracking control can be achieved. Finally, the results of simulation and field experiments are presented and discussed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Real-time motion force-feedback system with predictive-vision for improving motor accuracy

Many haptic guidance systems have been studied over the years; however, most of them have been limited to predefined guidance methods. Calculating guidance according to the operator’s motion is important for efficient human motor adaptation and learning. In this study, we developed a system that haptically provides guidance trajectory by sequential weighting between the operator’s trajectory and the ideal trajectory calculated from a predictive-vision system. We investigated whether motion completion with a predictive-vision system affects human motor accuracy and adaptation in time-constrained goal-directed reaching and ball-hitting tasks through subject experiments. The experiment was conducted with 12 healthy participants, and all participants performed ball-hitting tasks. Half of the participants get forceful guidance from the proposed system in the middle of the experiment. We found that the use of the proposed system improved the operator’s motor performance. Furthermore, we observed a trend in which the improvement in motor performance using this system correlated with that after the washout of this system. These results suggest that the predictive-vision system effectively enhances motor accuracy to the target error in dynamic and time-constrained reaching and hitting tasks and may contribute to facilitating motor learning.

A Hierarchical Multi-Vehicle Coordinated Motion Planning Method Based on Interactive Spatio-Temporal Corridors

Multi-vehicle coordinated motion planning has always been challenged to safely and efficiently resolve conflicts under non-holonomic dynamic constraints. Constructing spatial-temporal corridors for multi-vehicle can decouple the high-dimensional conflicts and further reduce the difficulty of obtaining feasible trajectories. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel hierarchical multi-vehicle coordinated motion planning method based on interactive spatio-temporal corridors (ISTCs). In the first layer, based on the initial guidance trajectories, Mixed Integer Quadratic Programming is designed to construct ISTCs capable of resolving conflicts in generic multi-vehicle scenarios. And then in the second layer, Non-Linear Programming is settled to generate in-corridor trajectories that satisfy the vehicle dynamics. By introducing ISTCs, the multi-vehicle coordinated motion planning problem is able to be decoupled into single-vehicle trajectory optimization problems, which greatly decentralizes the computational pressure and has great potential for real-world applications. Besides, the proposed method searches for feasible solutions in the 3-D <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(x,y,t)$</tex-math></inline-formula> configuration space, preserving more possibilities than the traditional velocity-path decoupling method. Simulated experiments in unsignalized intersection and challenging dense scenarios have been conducted to verify the feasibility and adaptability of the proposed framework.

Robust Constrained Multi-Objective Guidance of Supersonic Transport Landing Using Evolutionary Algorithm and Polynomial Chaos

Landing of supersonic transport (SST) suffers from a large uncertainty due to its highly sensitive aerodynamic properties in the subsonic domain, as well as the wind gusts around runways. At the vehicle design stage, a landing trajectory optimization under wind uncertainty in a multi-objective solution space is desired to explore the possible trade-off in its key flight performance metrics. The proposed algorithm solves this robust constrained multi-objective optimal control problem by integrating non-intrusive polynomial chaos expansion into a constrained evolutionary algorithm. The computationally tractable optimization is made possible through the conversion of a probabilistic problem into an equivalent deterministic representation while maintaining a form of the multi-objective problem. The generated guidance trajectories achieve a significant reduction of the uncertainty in their terminal states with a marginal modification in the control history of the deterministic solutions, validating the importance of the consideration of robustness in trajectory optimization.

Predicted Trajectory Guidance Control Framework of Teleoperated Ground Vehicles Compensating for Delays

A predicted trajectory guidance control (PTGC) framework is proposed to deal with the degradation of maneuverability and drivability of a teleoperated ground vehicle caused by large communication delays. Humans dominate the control of the teleoperated ground vehicle, and human sensitivity to delays is the main reason for control performance degradation. To address this problem, the proposed framework predicts the teleoperator's intended trajectory using the control commands and the 3D point cloud of the environment at the vehicle side, which is then used to guide the vehicle directly. The novelty of the approach is to attenuate the sensitivity of the human-in-loop system to delays by removing the teleoperator from the direct control loop. Delays can be compensated as long as the predicted horizon exceeds the delays. Human-in-loop simulation experiments are designed to evaluate the teleoperation performance of the proposed method at various delay levels. By means of repeated measurement analysis of variance, it is concluded that the proposed method can significantly improve maneuverability and drivability metrics at large delays (>200ms), such as the task completion time, deviation to centerline and steering efforts. In addition, the results also show that since teleoperators can adapt well to small delays (≤ 200 ms), the presented method is ineffective in this case.

Trajectory Guided Robust Visual Object Tracking With Selective Remedy

Siamese trackers have received a lot of attentions due to their promising performance and real-time high speed. However, the robustness is generally limited especially in challenging conditions, such as occlusion. Motivated by that tracking failure does not always occur and the target movement tends to follow certain patterns, in the paper, we propose a generic, fast and flexible approach to improve the robustness of Siamese trackers with two light-load novel modules: Trajectory Guidance Module (TGM) and Selective Refinement Module (SRM). Specifically, TGM encourages to pay a soft attention on possible target location based on short-term historical trajectory. SRM selectively remedies the tracking results at the risk of failure with little impact on the speed. The proposed algorithm can be easily establish upon state-of-the-art Siamese trackers and obtains better performance on seven benchmarks with high real-time tracking speed. The code is available at https://github.com/TJUMMG/TGSR.

표집변이성에 대한 추론 능력 함양을 위한 학습 경로 설계 연구

Our understanding of statistical inference is based on our understanding of the concept of sampling variability. In this study, we aimed to explore learning trajectory that would help students meaningfully construct concepts related to sampling variability under this assumption. For this purpose, in this study, based on hypothetical learning trajectory theory, we designed a learning trajectory that is expected to develop students’ reasoning about sampling variability. We qualitatively analyzed the results of a teaching experiment conducted for a group of preparatory teachers according to the guidance of the learning trajectory designed in this study. As a result, The participants were able to generate the hypothesis that sample medians obtained through a random sampling process were normally distributed around the population median. The participants were then able to generate the hypothesis that the larger the sample size, the smaller the range of distribution of the sample median. Furthermore, it is possible to generate the hypothesis that the center of the distribution of the sample median is determined by the population median, and the range of the distribution of the sample median is determined by the sample size and the interquartile range of the population. In addition, based on the results of retrospective analysis of the difference between the hypothetical learning trajectory and the actual learning trajectory, we proposed a modification of the initially designed hypothetical learning trajectory.

Influence of continuous edge-line delineation on drivers’ lateral positioning in curves: a gaze-steering approach

Recent research indicates that installing shoulders on rural roads for safety purposes causes drivers to steer further inside on right bends and thus exceed lane boundaries. The present simulator study examined whether continuous rather than broken edge-line delineation would help drivers to keep their vehicles within the lane. The results indicated that continuous delineation significantly impacts the drivers’ gaze and steering trajectories. Drivers looked more towards the lane centre and shifted their steering trajectories accordingly. This was accompanied by a significant decrease in lane-departure frequency when driving on a 3.50-m lane but not on a 2.75-m lane. Overall, the findings provide evidence that continuous delineation influences steering control by altering the visual processes underlying trajectory planning. It is concluded that continuous edge-line delineation between lanes and shoulders may induce safer driver behaviour on right bends, which has potential implications for preventing run-off-road crashes and cyclist safety. Practitioner summary: This study examined how continuous and broken edge lines influence driving behaviour around bends with shoulders. With continuous delineation, drivers gazed and steered in the bend further from the edge line and thus had fewer lane departures. Continuous marking can therefore help prevent run-off-road crashes and improve cyclists’ safety.

Design of Guidance Law for Smart Missile Based on Direct Mode Configuration with Implicit Dynamic-Inverse

The design of guidance law for smart missile based on implicit dynamic-inverse direct mode configuration is described in this paper. The dynamic-inverse theory and direct mode algorithm are applied to the design of guidance law. The pitching acceleration and yaw acceleration are designed for the pitch channel by using the augmented proportional guidance and for the yaw channel by using the dynamic-inverse theory respectively. The attacking time parameter and the attack time error equation are introduced as the constraint criteria for the design of the dynamic-inverse. According to the singular perturbation theory, the fast and slow subsystems are designed by dynamic-inverse control, and then the required control quantities are obtained by solving the relative motion equations of the missile and the target. The simulation results showed that the guidance law can fully meet the guidance trajectory performance requirements of the smart missile.

Bidirectional formation-involved consensus for uncertain multi-Lagrange systems under directed signed topology networks

Regarding complex behaviors of multi-agent systems (MAS), this paper proposes control protocols to reach a bidirectional formation-involved (FI) consensus for MAS. It primarily considers the multiple Lagrange systems (MLS) with uncertain parameters. And bipartite topology communication networks. Then, the validity of control protocols and the stability of the MLS are confirmed by determining the consistency convergence of the Lyapunov functions. With the stabilized MLS, the first-order linear system is adopted as a leader to provide trajectory guidance. With bipartite topology, MLS performs the FI complex behavior with pairwise tracking motion. The experiment part provides sufficient simulation examples that are selected to be consistent with the systems in the theoretical part.

Online Trajectory Planning Method for Midcourse Guidance Phase Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

Concerned with the problem of interceptor midcourse guidance trajectory online planning satisfying multiple constraints, an online midcourse guidance trajectory planning method based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is proposed. The Markov decision process (MDP) corresponding to the background of a trajectory planning problem is designed, and the key reward function is composed of the final reward and the negative step feedback reward, which lays the foundation for the interceptor training trajectory planning method in the interactive data of a simulation environment; at the same time, concerned with the problems of unstable learning and training efficiency, a trajectory planning training strategy combined with course learning (CL) and deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) is proposed to realize the progressive progression of trajectory planning learning and training from satisfying simple objectives to complex objectives, and improve the convergence of the algorithm. The simulation results show that our method can not only generate the optimal trajectory with good results, but its trajectory generation speed is also more than 10 times faster than the hp pseudo spectral convex method (PSC), and can also resist the error influence mainly caused by random wind interference, which has certain application value and good research prospects.

Trajectory‐tracking control of an unmanned surface vehicle based on characteristic modelling approach: Implementation and field testing

AbstractIn this study, a practical adaptive control scheme is proposed for the trajectory tracking of an unmanned surface vehicle via the characteristic modelling approach. Therefore, accurate tracking control can be achieved in the presence of unknown time‐varying model parameters and environmental disturbances. The control scheme comprises a trajectory guidance module based on the virtual target approach and a tracking control module designed by characteristic modelling theory. Firstly, the ideal control commands of the yaw speed and surge speed are generated using the position errors between the vehicle and the virtual target. Then, a second‐order characteristic model for the heading and surge speed channel is developed. The parameters of the model are updated by a real‐time parameter identification algorithm. Based on this model, an integrated adaptive control law is designed which consists of golden‐section control, feed‐forward control and integral control. Finally, the development processes of the vehicle platform and the control algorithms are described, and the results of simulation and field experiments are presented and discussed.

Analytic Time Reentry Cooperative Guidance for Multi-Hypersonic Glide Vehicles

Aiming at the cooperative guidance problem of multi-hypersonic glide vehicles, a cooperative guidance method based on a parametric design and an analytical solution of time-to-go is proposed. First, the hypersonic reentry trajectory optimization problem was transformed into a parameter optimization problem. The parameters were optimized to determine the angle of attack profile and the time to enter the altitude velocity reentry corridor. Then, using the quasi-equilibrium glide condition, the estimation form of the remaining flight time was analytically derived to satisfy accurately the cooperative time constraint. Using the remaining time-to-go and range-to-go, combined with the heading angle deviation corridor, the bank angle command was further calculated. Finally, the swarm intelligence optimization algorithm was used to optimize the design parameters to obtain the cooperative guidance trajectory satisfying the time constraint. Simulations showed that the analytical time reentry cooperative guidance algorithm proposed in this paper can accurately meet the time constraints and cooperative flight accuracy. Monte Carlo simulation experiments verified that the proposed algorithm demonstrates a robust performance.

Identifying effective trajectory predictions under the guidance of trajectory anomaly detection model

Trajectory Prediction (TP) is an important research topic in computer vision and robotics fields. Recently, many stochastic TP models have been proposed to deal with this problem and have achieved better performance than the traditional models with deterministic trajectory outputs. However, these stochastic models can generate a number of future trajectories with different qualities. They are lack of self-evaluation ability, that is, to examine the rationality of their prediction results, thus failing to guide users to identify high-quality ones from their candidate results. This hinders them from playing their best in real applications. In this paper, we make up for this defect and propose TPAD, a novel TP evaluation method based on the trajectory Anomaly Detection (AD) technique. In TPAD, we firstly combine the Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) technique and the experience in the AD and TP field to automatically design an effective trajectory AD model. Then, we utilize the learned trajectory AD model to examine the rationality of the predicted trajectories, and screen out good TP results for users. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that TPAD can effectively identify near-optimal prediction results, improving stochastic TP models’ practical application effect.