Related papers: Navigation Functions for Convex Potentials in a Sp…
This paper studies the trajectory optimization problem for an aerial vehicle with the mission of flying between a pair of given initial and final locations. The objective is to minimize the travel time of the aerial vehicle ensuring that…
A nonholonomic under-actuated robot with a bounded control range travels inside an unknown and unstructured 3D tunnel bounded by a generic 2D surface. The robot has access to the nearest point of the surface and measures the distance to the…
The push-forward operation enables one to redistribute a probability measure through a deterministic map. It plays a key role in statistics and optimization: many learning problems (notably from optimal transport, generative modeling, and…
We study the simulated annealing algorithm based on the kinetic Langevin dynamics, in order to find the global minimum of a non-convex potential function. For both the continuous time formulation and a discrete time analogue, we obtain the…
Research on coastal regions traditionally involves methods like manual sampling, monitoring buoys, and remote sensing, but these methods face challenges in spatially and temporally diverse regions of interest. Autonomous surface vehicles…
We develop a numerical method for the computation of a minimal convex and compact set, $\mathcal{B}\subset\mathbb{R}^N$, in the sense of mean width. This minimisation is constrained by the requirement that $\max_{b\in\mathcal{B}}\langle b ,…
Hidden convex optimization is such a class of nonconvex optimization problems that can be globally solved in polynomial time via equivalent convex programming reformulations. In this paper, we focus on checking local optimality in hidden…
This paper studies simple bilevel problems, where a convex upper-level function is minimized over the optimal solutions of a convex lower-level problem. We first show the fundamental difficulty of simple bilevel problems, that the…
To operate reactively in uncertain environments, robots need to be able to quickly estimate the risk that they will collide with their environment. This ability is important for both planning (to ensure that plans maintain acceptable levels…
Autonomous agents operating in public spaces must consider how their behaviors might affect the humans around them, even when not directly interacting with them. To this end, it is often beneficial to be predictable and appear naturalistic.…
The ability to navigate, search, and monitor dynamic marine environments such as ports, deltas, tributaries, and rivers presents several challenges to both human operated and autonomously operated surface vehicles. Human data collection and…
We present a novel feasibility criteria for the finite intersection of convex sets given by inequalities. This criteria allows us to easily assert the feasibility by analyzing the unconstrained minimum of a speci?fic convex function, that…
Ground robots navigating in complex, dynamic environments must compute collision-free trajectories to avoid obstacles safely and efficiently. Nonconvex optimization is a popular method to compute a trajectory in real-time. However, these…
We present a unified approach for constraint displacement problems in which a robot finds a feasible path by displacing constraints or obstacles. To this end, we propose a two stage process that returns locally optimal obstacle…
We present a continuous-time collision detection algorithm for quickly detecting whether certain polynomial trajectories in time intersect with convex obstacles. The algorithm is used in conjunction with an existing multicopter trajectory…
In this paper, we look into the minimum obstacle displacement (MOD) planning problem from a mobile robot motion planning perspective. This problem finds an optimal path to goal by displacing movable obstacles when no path exists due to…
For the simulation of pedestrians a method is introduced to find routing alternatives from any origin position to a given destination area in a given geometry composed of walking areas and obstacles. The method includes a parameter which…
A major obstacle to non-convex optimization is the problem of getting stuck in local minima. We introduce a novel metaheuristic to handle this issue, creating an alternate Hamiltonian that shares minima with the original Hamiltonian only…
This article describes a guidance system of the autonomous underwater vehicle "DeepC" [1] in Special situations. A special situation occurs when one or more objects interfere with the planned route of a mission. The possible reactions are…
Trained humans exhibit highly agile spatial skills, enabling them to operate vehicles with complex dynamics in demanding tasks and conditions. Prior work shows that humans achieve this performance by using strategies such as satisficing,…