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Description
A computational framework based on convex optimization is presented for stability analysis of systems described by Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). Specifically, two forms of linear PDEs with spatially distributed polynomial coefficients are considered.

The first class includes linear coupled PDEs with one spatial variable. Parabolic, elliptic or hyperbolic PDEs with

A computational framework based on convex optimization is presented for stability analysis of systems described by Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). Specifically, two forms of linear PDEs with spatially distributed polynomial coefficients are considered.

The first class includes linear coupled PDEs with one spatial variable. Parabolic, elliptic or hyperbolic PDEs with Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin or mixed boundary conditions can be reformulated in order to be used by the framework. As an example, the reformulation is presented for systems governed by Schr¨odinger equation, parabolic type, relativistic heat conduction PDE and acoustic wave equation, hyperbolic types. The second form of PDEs of interest are scalar-valued with two spatial variables. An extra spatial variable allows consideration of problems such as local stability of fluid flows in channels and dynamics of population over two dimensional domains.

The approach does not involve discretization and is based on using Sum-of-Squares (SOS) polynomials and positive semi-definite matrices to parameterize operators which are positive on function spaces. Applying the parameterization to construct Lyapunov functionals with negative derivatives allows to express stability conditions as a set of LinearMatrix Inequalities (LMIs). The MATLAB package SOSTOOLS was used to construct the LMIs. The resultant LMIs then can be solved using existent Semi-Definite Programming (SDP) solvers such as SeDuMi or MOSEK. Moreover, the proposed approach allows to calculate bounds on the rate of decay of the solution norm.

The methodology is tested using several numerical examples and compared with the results obtained from simulation using standard methods of numerical discretization and analytic solutions.
ContributorsMeyer, Evgeny (Author) / Peet, Matthew (Thesis advisor) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Rivera, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
To achieve the ambitious long-term goal of a feet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous

Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses several

critical modeling, design, control objectives for rear-wheel drive ground vehicles.

Toward this ambitious goal, several critical objectives are addressed. One central objective of the thesis was to show how

To achieve the ambitious long-term goal of a feet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous

Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses several

critical modeling, design, control objectives for rear-wheel drive ground vehicles.

Toward this ambitious goal, several critical objectives are addressed. One central objective of the thesis was to show how to build low-cost multi-capability robot platform

that can be used for conducting FAME research.

A TFC-KIT car chassis was augmented to provide a suite of substantive capabilities.

The augmented vehicle (FreeSLAM Robot) costs less than $500 but offers the capability

of commercially available vehicles costing over $2000.

All demonstrations presented involve rear-wheel drive FreeSLAM robot. The following

summarizes the key hardware demonstrations presented and analyzed:

(1)Cruise (v, ) control along a line,

(2) Cruise (v, ) control along a curve,

(3) Planar (x, y) Cartesian Stabilization for rear wheel drive vehicle,

(4) Finish the track with camera pan tilt structure in minimum time,

(5) Finish the track without camera pan tilt structure in minimum time,

(6) Vision based tracking performance with different cruise speed vx,

(7) Vision based tracking performance with different camera fixed look-ahead distance L,

(8) Vision based tracking performance with different delay Td from vision subsystem,

(9) Manually remote controlled robot to perform indoor SLAM,

(10) Autonomously line guided robot to perform indoor SLAM.

For most cases, hardware data is compared with, and corroborated by, model based

simulation data. In short, the thesis uses low-cost self-designed rear-wheel

drive robot to demonstrate many capabilities that are critical in order to reach the

longer-term FAME goal.
ContributorsLu, Xianglong (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando Antonio (Thesis advisor) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Traditional methods for detecting the status of traffic lights used in autonomous vehicles may be susceptible to errors, which is troublesome in a safety-critical environment. In the case of vision-based recognition methods, failures may arise due to disturbances in the environment such as occluded views or poor lighting conditions. Some

Traditional methods for detecting the status of traffic lights used in autonomous vehicles may be susceptible to errors, which is troublesome in a safety-critical environment. In the case of vision-based recognition methods, failures may arise due to disturbances in the environment such as occluded views or poor lighting conditions. Some methods also depend on high-precision meta-data which is not always available. This thesis proposes a complementary detection approach based on an entirely new source of information: the movement patterns of other nearby vehicles. This approach is robust to traditional sources of error, and may serve as a viable supplemental detection method. Several different classification models are presented for inferring traffic light status based on these patterns. Their performance is evaluated over real-world and simulation data sets, resulting in up to 97% accuracy in each set.
ContributorsCampbell, Joseph (Author) / Fainekos, Georgios (Thesis advisor) / Ben Amor, Heni (Committee member) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Object sorting is a very common application especially in the industry setting, but this is a labor intensive and time consuming process and it proves to be challenging if done manually. Thanks to the rapid development in technology now almost all these object sorting tasks are partially or completely automated.

Object sorting is a very common application especially in the industry setting, but this is a labor intensive and time consuming process and it proves to be challenging if done manually. Thanks to the rapid development in technology now almost all these object sorting tasks are partially or completely automated. Image processing techniques are essential for the full operation of such a pick and place robot as it is responsible for perceiving the environment and to correctly identify ,classify and localize the different objects in it. In order for the robots to perform accurate object sorting with efficiency and stability this thesis discusses how different Deep learning based perception techniques can be used. In the era of Artificial Intelligence this sorting problem can be done more efficiently than the existing techniques. This thesis presents different image processing techniques and algorithms that can be used to perform object sorting efficiently. A comparison between three different deep learning based techniques is presented and their pros and cons are discussed. Furthermore this thesis also presents a comprehensive study about the kinematics and the dynamics involved in a 2 Degree of Freedom Robotic Manipulator .
ContributorsRanganathan, Pavithra (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando (Thesis advisor) / Si, Jennie (Committee member) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Description
Currently, one of the biggest limiting factors for long-term deployment of autonomous systems is the power constraints of a platform. In particular, for aerial robots such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the energy resource is the main driver of mission planning and operation definitions, as everything revolved around flight time.

Currently, one of the biggest limiting factors for long-term deployment of autonomous systems is the power constraints of a platform. In particular, for aerial robots such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the energy resource is the main driver of mission planning and operation definitions, as everything revolved around flight time. The focus of this work is to develop a new method of energy storage and charging for autonomous UAV systems, for use during long-term deployments in a constrained environment. We developed a charging solution that allows pre-equipped UAV system to land on top of designated charging pads and rapidly replenish their battery reserves, using a contact charging point. This system is designed to work with all types of rechargeable batteries, focusing on Lithium Polymer (LiPo) packs, that incorporate a battery management system for increased reliability. The project also explores optimization methods for fleets of UAV systems, to increase charging efficiency and extend battery lifespans. Each component of this project was first designed and tested in computer simulation. Following positive feedback and results, prototypes for each part of this system were developed and rigorously tested. Results show that the contact charging method is able to charge LiPo batteries at a 1-C rate, which is the industry standard rate, maintaining the same safety and efficiency standards as modern day direct connection chargers. Control software for these base stations was also created, to be integrated with a fleet management system, and optimizes UAV charge levels and distribution to extend LiPo battery lifetimes while still meeting expected mission demand. Each component of this project (hardware/software) was designed for manufacturing and implementation using industry standard tools, making it ideal for large-scale implementations. This system has been successfully tested with a fleet of UAV systems at Arizona State University, and is currently being integrated into an Arizona smart city environment for deployment.
ContributorsMian, Sami (Author) / Panchanathan, Sethuraman (Thesis advisor) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Yang, Yezhou (Committee member) / McDaniel, Troy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
Toward the ambitious long-term goal of a fleet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses several

critical modeling, design and control objectives for ground vehicles. One central objective was to show how off-the-shelf (low-cost) remote-control (RC) “toy” vehicles can be converted into intelligent multi-capability

Toward the ambitious long-term goal of a fleet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses several

critical modeling, design and control objectives for ground vehicles. One central objective was to show how off-the-shelf (low-cost) remote-control (RC) “toy” vehicles can be converted into intelligent multi-capability robotic-platforms for conducting FAME research. This is shown for two vehicle classes: (1) six differential-drive (DD) RC vehicles called Thunder Tumbler (DDTT) and (2) one rear-wheel drive (RWD) RC car called Ford F-150 (1:14 scale). Each DDTT-vehicle was augmented to provide a substantive suite of capabilities as summarized below (It should be noted, however, that only one DDTT-vehicle was augmented with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and 2.4 GHz RC capability): (1) magnetic wheel-encoders/IMU for(dead-reckoning-based) inner-loop speed-control and outer-loop position-directional-control, (2) Arduino Uno microcontroller-board for encoder-based inner-loop speed-control and encoder-IMU-ultrasound-based outer-loop cruise-position-directional-separation-control, (3) Arduino motor-shield for inner-loop motor-speed-control, (4)Raspberry Pi II computer-board for demanding outer-loop vision-based cruise- position-directional-control, (5) Raspberry Pi 5MP camera for outer-loop cruise-position-directional-control (exploiting WiFi to send video back to laptop), (6) forward-pointing ultrasonic distance/rangefinder sensor for outer-loop separation-control, and (7) 2.4 GHz spread-spectrum RC capability to replace original 27/49 MHz RC. Each “enhanced”/ augmented DDTT-vehicle costs less than 􀀀175 but offers the capability of commercially available vehicles costing over 􀀀500. Both the Arduino and Raspberry are low-cost, well-supported (software wise) and easy-to-use. For the vehicle classes considered (i.e. DD, RWD), both kinematic and dynamical (planar xy) models are examined. Suitable nonlinear/linear-models are used to develop inner/outer-loopcontrol laws.

All demonstrations presented involve enhanced DDTT-vehicles; one the F-150; one a quadrotor. The following summarizes key hardware demonstrations: (1) cruise-control along line, (2) position-control along line (3) position-control along curve (4) planar (xy) Cartesian stabilization, (5) cruise-control along jagged line/curve, (6) vehicle-target spacing-control, (7) multi-robot spacing-control along line/curve, (8) tracking slowly-moving remote-controlled quadrotor, (9) avoiding obstacle while moving toward target, (10) RC F-150 followed by DDTT-vehicle. Hardware data/video is compared with, and corroborated by, model-based simulations. In short, many capabilities that are critical for reaching the longer-term FAME goal are demonstrated.
ContributorsLin, Zhenyu (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando Antonio (Committee member) / Si, Jennie (Committee member) / Berman, Spring Melody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Over the past few decades, there is an increase in demand for various ground robot applications such as warehouse management, surveillance, mapping, infrastructure inspection, etc. This steady increase in demand has led to a significant rise in the nonholonomic differential drive vehicles (DDV) research. Albeit extensive work has been done

Over the past few decades, there is an increase in demand for various ground robot applications such as warehouse management, surveillance, mapping, infrastructure inspection, etc. This steady increase in demand has led to a significant rise in the nonholonomic differential drive vehicles (DDV) research. Albeit extensive work has been done in developing various control laws for trajectory tracking, point stabilization, formation control, etc., there are still problems and critical questions in regards to design, modeling, and control of DDV’s - that need to be adequately addressed. In this thesis, three different dynamical models are considered that are formed by varying the input/output parameters of the DDV model. These models are analyzed to understand their stability, bandwidth, input-output coupling, and control design properties. Furthermore, a systematic approach has been presented to show the impact of design parameters such as mass, inertia, radius of the wheels, and center of gravity location on the dynamic and inner-loop (speed) control design properties. Subsequently, extensive simulation and hardware trade studies have been conductedto quantify the impact of design parameters and modeling variations on the performance of outer-loop cruise and position control (along a curve). In addition to this, detailed guidelines are provided for when a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) control strategy is advisable over a single-input single-output (SISO) control strategy; when a less stable plant is preferable over a more stable one in order to accommodate performance specifications. Additionally, a multi-robot trajectory tracking implementation based on receding horizon optimization approach is also presented. In most of the optimization-based trajectory tracking approaches found in the literature, only the constraints imposed by the kinematic model are incorporated into the problem. This thesis elaborates the fundamental problem associated with these methods and presents a systematic approach to understand and quantify when kinematic model based constraints are sufficient and when dynamic model-based constraints are necessary to obtain good tracking properties. Detailed instructions are given for designing and building the DDV based on performance specifications, and also, an open-source platform capable of handling high-speed multi-robot research is developed in C++.
ContributorsManne, Sai Sravan (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando A (Thesis advisor) / Si, Jennie (Committee member) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021