Related papers: Risk-Aware Coverage Path Planning for Lunar Micro-…
Safe navigation of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) requires not only obstacle-free flight paths according to a static environment map, but also the perception of and reaction to previously unknown and dynamic objects. This implies that the…
This paper considers three related mobile robot multi-target sensory coverage and inspection planning problems in 2-D environments. In the first problem, a mobile robot must find the shortest path to observe multiple targets with a limited…
Autonomous robotic systems are increasingly deployed for mapping, monitoring, and inspection in complex and unstructured environments. However, most existing path planning approaches remain domain-specific (i.e., either on air, land, or…
Synthetic image generation is one of the crucial input for planetary missions. It enables researchers and engineers to visualize planned planetary missions, test imaging systems and plan exploration activities in a virtual environment…
The enabling of safe cellular controlled unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) beyond visual line of sight is expected to open important future opportunities in the area of transportation, goods delivery, and system monitoring. A key challenge in…
Risk to human astronauts and interplanetary distance causing slow and limited communication drives scientists to pursue an autonomous approach to exploring distant planets, such as Mars. A portion of exploration of Mars has been conducted…
We consider the problem of autonomous mobile robot exploration in an unknown environment, taking into account a robot's coverage rate, map uncertainty, and state estimation uncertainty. This paper presents a novel exploration framework for…
Unstructured environments such as mountains, caves, construction sites, or disaster areas are challenging for autonomous navigation because of terrain irregularities. In particular, it is crucial to plan a path to avoid risky terrain and…
Motivated by lunar exploration, we consider deploying a network of mobile robots to explore an unknown environment while acting as a cooperative positioning system. Robots measure and communicate position-related data in order to perform…
This paper introduces a graph-based, potential-guided method for path planning problems in unknown environments, where obstacles are unknown until the robots are in close proximity to the obstacle locations. Inspired by optimal transport…
This paper presents an online informative path planning approach for active information gathering on three-dimensional surfaces using aerial robots. Most existing works on surface inspection focus on planning a path offline that can provide…
Mobile robots rely on maps to navigate through an environment. In the absence of any map, the robots must build the map online from partial observations as they move in the environment. Traditional methods build a map using only direct…
Space exploration has witnessed a steady increase since the 1960s, with Mars playing a significant role in our quest for further knowledge. As the ambition to colonize Mars becomes a reality through the collaboration of private companies…
In an era marked by renewed interest in lunar exploration and the prospect of establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon, innovative approaches supporting mission preparation and astronaut training are imperative. To this end,…
This paper presents a system for autonomous semantic exploration and dense semantic target mapping of a complex unknown environment using a ground robot equipped with a LiDAR-panoramic camera suite. Existing approaches often struggle to…
This paper presents a novel algorithm, called $\epsilon^*$+, for online coverage path planning of unknown environments using energy-constrained autonomous vehicles. Due to limited battery size, the energy-constrained vehicles have limited…
This project proposes a bioinspired multi-robot system using Distributed Optimization for efficient exploration and mapping of unknown environments. Each robot explores its environment and creates a map, which is afterwards put together to…
Autonomous navigation through unknown environments is a challenging task that entails real-time localization, perception, planning, and control. UAVs with this capability have begun to emerge in the literature with advances in lightweight…
In unknown non-convex environments, such as indoor and underground spaces, deploying a fleet of robots to explore the surroundings while simultaneously searching for and tracking targets of interest to maintain high-precision data…
Planetary rover missions must utilize machine learning-based perception to continue extra-terrestrial exploration with little to no human presence. Martian terrain segmentation has been critical for rover navigation and hazard avoidance to…