{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129347"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129347","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Towards autonomous excavation in tough terrains and unobservable obstacles","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Franceschini, Noah E."],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Electrical & Computer Engr","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Hauser, Kris K."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-05-09","date_published":"2025-05-09","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:05Z","subjects":["Robotics","Controls"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Noah Franceschini"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129347","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Hauser, Kris K."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Franceschini, Noah E."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-05-09","2025-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Electrical & Computer Engr"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Robotics","Controls"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Noah Franceschini"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129347"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms","The student, Noah Franceschini, accepted the attached license on 2025-05-08 at 16:33.","The student, Noah Franceschini, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-05-08 at 16:42.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-05-09 at 10:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22272 on 2025-10-19 at 18:13:58","Current autonomous excavation methods often make the assumption that the terrain within their environment is homogeneous, and remains free of obstacles. This assumption is insufficient for safe and reliable systems in the real world. Real autonomous excavation agents have to adapt to uncertainty within their environments such as changing terrain conditions and colliding with obstacles during an excavation fill cycle. In this work, we seek to improve autonomous excavation methods by introducing a novel set of scooping primitives to assist in breaking up jammed materials, a novel Reactive Attractor Impedance Controller (RAIC) that dampens trajectories when facing high impedances during the scooping cycle, and finally, we introducing a framework for material parameter estimation using tactile feedback. Our most novel methods comes in the form of our scooping primitives and our RAIC controller. These primitives are a set of oscillatory movement primitives with the intention of breaking up jammed particles encountered during the robot’s excavation cycle. Our RAIC controller works in tandem with our scooping primitives to help dampen and stop the robot’s end-effector trajectory when experiencing high forces to then break up the jammed materials. We evaluated these methods on a variety terrains and found them to vastly improve material scooped, as well as ensuring better safety over standard methods. Our material parameter estimation framework proposes using a simple force estimation method when dragging and intruding surface through granular media. This method, Resistive Force Theory (RFT), allows us to predict forces on our end-effector, while only requiring a single parameter ζ, the terrain’s resistivity coefficient. In addition to this RFT model, we propose a material deformation model based on the estimated forces to displace and settle the granular media between time steps. We then go on to explain how, in future works, this model can be used to estimate the local ζ to create a heterogeneous terrain property map to be used in excavation environments."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Towards autonomous excavation in tough terrains and unobservable obstacles"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Hauser, Kris K."],"dc:creator":["Franceschini, Noah E."],"dc:date":["2025-05-09","2025-05"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-19 without embargo terms","The student, Noah Franceschini, accepted the attached license on 2025-05-08 at 16:33.","The student, Noah Franceschini, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-05-08 at 16:42.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-05-09 at 10:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22272 on 2025-10-19 at 18:13:58","Current autonomous excavation methods often make the assumption that the terrain within their environment is homogeneous, and remains free of obstacles. This assumption is insufficient for safe and reliable systems in the real world. Real autonomous excavation agents have to adapt to uncertainty within their environments such as changing terrain conditions and colliding with obstacles during an excavation fill cycle. In this work, we seek to improve autonomous excavation methods by introducing a novel set of scooping primitives to assist in breaking up jammed materials, a novel Reactive Attractor Impedance Controller (RAIC) that dampens trajectories when facing high impedances during the scooping cycle, and finally, we introducing a framework for material parameter estimation using tactile feedback. Our most novel methods comes in the form of our scooping primitives and our RAIC controller. These primitives are a set of oscillatory movement primitives with the intention of breaking up jammed particles encountered during the robot’s excavation cycle. Our RAIC controller works in tandem with our scooping primitives to help dampen and stop the robot’s end-effector trajectory when experiencing high forces to then break up the jammed materials. We evaluated these methods on a variety terrains and found them to vastly improve material scooped, as well as ensuring better safety over standard methods. Our material parameter estimation framework proposes using a simple force estimation method when dragging and intruding surface through granular media. This method, Resistive Force Theory (RFT), allows us to predict forces on our end-effector, while only requiring a single parameter ζ, the terrain’s resistivity coefficient. In addition to this RFT model, we propose a material deformation model based on the estimated forces to displace and settle the granular media between time steps. We then go on to explain how, in future works, this model can be used to estimate the local ζ to create a heterogeneous terrain property map to be used in excavation environments."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129347"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2025 Noah Franceschini"],"dc:subject":["Robotics","Controls"],"dc:title":["Towards autonomous excavation in tough terrains and unobservable obstacles"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Electrical & Computer Engr"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:05Z"}