Autonomous assembly of digital materials: with inchworm locomotion robotic assemblers

Throughout history, human progress has been defined by the mastery of materials, transitioning from stone and bronze to the steel age. However, this progression has not only been defined by the materials utilized but has also encompassed a shift in processes, moving from the industrial to the information era. Despite the advances in fabrication...

Real-time Adaptive Nonlinear MPC for Collision Imminent Control and Planning in Automated Vehicles: Enforcing constraints and utilizing the full control potential

With the introduction of autonomous vehicles on public roads, their performance in emergency situations has become a strong focus. Collision Imminent Control (CIC) concerns the planning and control of aggressive evasive maneuvers for collision avoidance of automated vehicles. CIC is implemented using adaptive Nonlinear Model Predictive Control ...

On Game-Theoretic Planning with Unknown Opponents' Objectives

Many autonomous navigation tasks require mobile robots to operate in dynamic environments involving interactions between agents. Developing interaction-aware motion planning algorithms that enable safe and intelligent interactions remains challenging. Dynamic game theory renders a powerful mathematical framework to model these interactions...

Short-term vessel trajectory and manoeuvre prediction: Predicting vessel trajectories including swing manoeuvres in a scoped area of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges

Situational awareness within port areas is crucial to avoid collisions, navigate efficiently and reduce congestion. Maritime-traffic controllers constantly monitor the situation in the port and intervene when needed. This study proposes a deep learning model that predicts future vessel positions to assist in this process. The model employs a...

Omnidirectional Monocular Collision Avoidance Onboard a Quadrotor

Coupled and Model-based cooperative planning in Overcooked AI

In the field of cooperative AI, an environment is created called Overcooked AI based on the popular Overcooked game. Originally the environment is used to study deep reinforcement learning, on the other hand it also allows for cooperative planning methods of which the paper will focus on. These methods include coupled based planning with...

Collision Probability through Orbital Uncertainty Propagation: The Hybrid Differential Algebra and Gaussian Mixture Model Approach

The number of space objects has largely increased in the recent years, becoming a considerable threat to the present and future of satellite operations and human spaceflight. This introduces a need to accurately compute the risk of collision between satellites and space debris. Current methodologies are limited by the type of encounter and the...

Dynamic AGV routing depending on sensor-based collision avoidance: A case for the light metal and forging industry

AGVs have seen an upward trend in development over the last 60 years. The technology has developed from mechanical bumpers and guided wire navigation to contactless sensors and free navigation technique in the current age. Further, the control on AGVs has moved from central control system to local intelligence which opens up various...

Real-time Collision Avoidance for Robot Manipulators by Braking Trajectory Prediction

The thesis contributes to the pre-collision strategies of robot manipulators by proposing a real-time implementable collision avoidance scheme. The collision is avoided by a braking controller that is activated by a braking trajectory predictor. The predictor provides distances of the end-effector to the object/human in the environment and...