Robust hybrid control for autonomous vehicle motion planning

This dissertation focuses on the problem of motion planning for agile autonomous vehicles. In realistic situations, the motion planning problem must be solved in real-time, in a dynamic and uncertain environment. The fulfillment of the mission objectives might also require the exploitation of the full maneuvering capabilities of the vehicle. The main contribution of the dissertation is the development of a new computational and modelling framework (the Maneuver Automaton), and related algorithms, for steering underactuated, nonholonomic mechanical systems. The proposed approach is based on a quantization of the system's dynamics, by which the feasible nominal system trajectories are restricted to the family of curves that can be obtained by the interconnection of suitably defined primitives. This can be seen as a formalization of the concept of "maneuver", allowing for the construction of a framework amenable to mathematical programming. This motion planning framework is applicable to all time-invariant dynamical systems which admit dynamic symmetries and relative equilibria. No other assumptions are made on the dynamics, thus resulting in exact motion planning techniques of general applicability. Building on a relatively expensive off-line computation phase, we provide algorithms viable for real-time applications. A fundamental advantage of this approach is the ability to provide a mathematical foundation for generating a provably stable and consistent hierarchical system, and for developing the tools to analyze the robustness of the system in the presence of uncertainty and/or disturbances.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Frazzoli, Emilio, 1970-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Munther A. Dahleh and Eric Feron.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8703

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8703