Mobile Robots for Dynamic Environments

Contributing Authors v

Preface x

1. Underwater robots: a fascinating challenge Andrea Manuello 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Biomorfic fin propulsion 8

1.3 Biomorfic fin actuation 10

1.4 Biomorfic integrated fin-actuator systems: a case study 11

1.5 Conclusion 20

2. A novel Lighter Than Air Vehicle - Flying Octopus Zheng Li 27

2.1 Introduction 27

2.2 The design of Flying Octopus - a bio-inspired design 31

2.2.1 Design considerations 31

2.2.2 The design 32

2.2.3 The wire-driven flapping wing 33

2.3 Modeling and simulation 36

2.3.1 Wing kinematics 36

2.3.2 Propulsion model 39

2.3.3 Propulsion simulation 40

2.4 Motion control 42

2.4.1 Wing flapping motion 42

2.4.2 Flying Octopus motion control 44

2.5 Prototype and experiment testing 46

2.5.1 Flying Octopus prototype 46

2.5.2 Indoor experiments 47

2.6 Conclusions 51

3. Visual attitude estimation and stabilization of flying robots Cihat Bora Yi?it 55

3.1 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles 55

3.2 Attitude estimation with vision 58

3.3 Quadrotor UAV modeling and control 61

3.4 Robot design and manufacturing 66

3.5 Experiments 70

3.6 Closure 74

4. Robot swarms: dynamics and control Veysel Gazi 79

4.1 Introduction 79

4.2 Agent dynamics 81

4.2.1 Fully actuated agent model 81

4.2.2 Non-holonomic agent dynamics 83

4.2.3 Simplified or high-level agent models 85

4.3 Problem definitions 86

4.3.1 Aggregation and social foraging 86

4.3.2 Formal control and swarm tracking 89

4.3.3 Source seeking 91

4.4 Control design approaches 93

4.4.1 Artificial potential functions 93

4.4.2 Neighborhood topologies 97

4.4.3 Gradient-based, lyapunov, and sliding mode methods 97

4.4.4 Adaptive control approaches 101

4.4.5 Other nonlinear methods 101

4.5 Swarm robotic applications 102

4.5.1 Static coverage 103

4.5.2 Dynamic coverage 104

4.5.3 Cooperative target localization and tracking 106

4.6 Concluding remarks 107

5. Mobile robots for earth exploration: applications, technologies and image processing techniques for navigation Filippo Bonaccorso 127

5.1 Introduction 127

5.2 Applications of robots for earth explorations 128

5.2.1 Volcanic explorations 128

5.2.2 Meteorite search 130

5.2.3 Search and rescue 131

5.2.4 Humanitarian demining 131

5.2.5 Underground explorations 131

5.3 Related technologies 132

5.3.1 Sun synchronous robots 132

5.3.2 Traversability analysis 132

5.3.3 Localization and map building 133

5.3.4 Traction control 133

5.4 Current challenges 133

5.5 A road detection and obstacle avoidance method of using a stereo camera for autonomous navigation 134

5.5.1 Related works and overview 135

5.5.2 Drivable surface detection outline 136

5.5.3 Drivable surface detection setup 142

5.5.4 Obstacle detection 148

5.5.5 Control of the robotic platform 150

5.5.6 Final considerations 157

5.6 Conclusions and future work 157

5.7 References 158