Related papers: Bi-Level Image-Guided Ergodic Exploration with App…
Planetary exploration using aerial assets has the potential for unprecedented scientific discoveries on Mars. While NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity proved flight in Martian atmosphere is possible, future Mars rotorcraft will require…
Globally localizing a mobile robot in a known map is often a foundation for enabling robots to navigate and operate autonomously. In indoor environments, traditional Monte Carlo localization based on occupancy grid maps is considered the…
We develop an algorithm to explore an environment to generate a measurement model for use in future localization tasks. Ergodic exploration with respect to the likelihood of a particular class of measurement (e.g., a contact detection…
This paper presents a novel method for qualitative mapping of large scale spaces. The proposed framework makes use of a graphical representation of the world in order to build a map consisting of qualitative constraints on the geometric…
We present a novel formulation of ergodic trajectory optimization that can be specified over general domains using kernel maximum mean discrepancy. Ergodic trajectory optimization is an effective approach that generates coverage paths for…
We consider the problem of vision-based 6-DoF object pose estimation in the context of the notional Mars Sample Return campaign, in which a robotic arm would need to localize multiple objects of interest for low-clearance pickup and…
Ergodic control synthesizes optimal coverage behaviors over spatial distributions for nonlinear systems. However, existing formulations model the robot as a non-volumetric point, whereas in practice a robot interacts with the environment…
In the context of mobile navigation in unstructured environments, the predominant approach entails the avoidance of obstacles. The prevailing path planning algorithms are contingent upon deviating from the intended path for an indefinite…
This paper develops an algorithm that guides a multi-robot system in an unknown environment in search of fixed targets. The area to be scanned contains an unknown number of convex obstacles of unknown size and shape. The algorithm covers…
Exploration systems are critical for enhancing the autonomy of robots. Due to the unpredictability of the future planning space, existing methods either adopt an inefficient greedy strategy or require a lot of resources to obtain a global…
Autonomous terrain classification is an important problem in planetary navigation, whether the goal is to identify scientific sites of interest or to traverse treacherous areas safely. Past Martian rovers have relied on human operators to…
Ergodic exploration has spawned a lot of interest in mobile robotics due to its ability to design time trajectories that match desired spatial coverage statistics. However, current ergodic approaches are for continuous spaces, which require…
Path planning for robotic coverage is the task of determining a collision-free robot trajectory that observes all points of interest in an environment. Robots employed for such tasks are often capable of exercising active control over…
We propose a novel method to reliably estimate the pose of a camera given a sequence of images acquired in extreme environments such as deep seas or extraterrestrial terrains. Data acquired under these challenging conditions are corrupted…
This paper deals with the problem of autonomous navigation of a mobile robot in an unknown 2D environment to fully explore the environment as efficiently as possible. We assume a terrestrial mobile robot equipped with a ranging sensor with…
In this field report, we detail the lessons learned from our field expedition to collect Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data in a Mars analog environment for the purpose of validating GPR localization techniques in rugged environments.…
In this paper, a novel approach is introduced which utilizes a Rapidly-exploring Random Graph to improve sampling-based autonomous exploration of unknown environments with unmanned ground vehicles compared to the current state of the art.…
In this paper we present a simulation framework for the evaluation of the navigation and localization metrological performances of a robotic platform. The simulator, based on ROS (Robot Operating System) Gazebo, is targeted to a…
Images are a convenient way to specify which particular object instance an embodied agent should navigate to. Solving this task requires semantic visual reasoning and exploration of unknown environments. We present a system that can perform…
Semantic maps allow a robot to reason about its surroundings to fulfill tasks such as navigating known environments, finding specific objects, and exploring unmapped areas. Traditional mapping approaches provide accurate geometric…