Many connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) applications benefit from navigation technologies that reliably achieve lane-level accuracy. Global organizations have recently begun to provide real-time common-mode error corrections for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) that enable this level of positioning accuracy using Precise Point Positioning (PPP). Incorporating an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) with a GNSS receiver can achieve this positioning performance reliably on moving platforms while providing a full state estimate, with high bandwidth at a high sampling rate. For commercial automotive applications cost is critical; therefore, this article focuses on commercial grade IMU’s and single-frequency GNSS code and Doppler measurements. This article presents and demonstrates a tightly-coupled PPP GNSS aided Inertial Navigation System (INS) using only publicly available real-time data sources. The article discusses the role of the INS in automotive applications and how the quality of the IMU affects the ability to achieve that role. The experimental results demonstrate positioning accuracy that surpasses the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) J2945 specification (horizontal error ≤1.5 m and vertical error ≤ 3 m 68%).

Connected and automated vehicle applications are facilitated by Enhanced Digital Maps (EDMs) of the roadway environment. Due to the high numbers of roadway miles and signalized intersections, there is significant research interest in the automatic extraction of such maps from georectified LiDAR data. Most existing methods convert the LiDAR point cloud to a set of images for feature extraction and mapping. This rasterization step loses information that could be retained if new methods were developed that work directly on the LiDAR point could for feature extraction and mapping, without rasterization. This article presents one such approach that operates on a road surface point cloud, processing small patches at a time using a locally adaptive version of Otsu's method to discard low intensity reflections while retaining reflections from roadway markings. The main new aspect of the approach is a graph-based clustering algorithm implemented directly on the point cloud. A cluster growing method is used to group similar road markings into the same group to enable detection of the stop bars and lane edges. Finally, a SAE-J2735 map message is created from the extracted roadway features.

The decreasing cost and size of video sensors has led to camera networks becoming pervasive in our lives. However, the ability to analyze these images effectively is very much a function of the quality of the acquired images. In this paper, we consider the problem of automatically controlling the fields of view of individual pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras in a camera network leading to improved situation awareness (e.g., where and what are the critical targets and events) in a region of interest. The network of cameras attempts to observe the entire region of interest at some minimum resolution while opportunistically acquiring high resolution images of critical events in real time. Since many activities involve groups of people interacting, an important decision that the network needs to make is whether to focus on individuals or groups of them. This is achieved by understanding the performance of video analysis tasks and designing camera control strategies to improve a metric that quantifies the quality of the source imagery. Optimization strategies, along with a distributed implementation, are proposed, and their theoretical properties analyzed. The proposed methods bring together computer vision and network control ideas. The performance of the proposed methodologies discussed herein has been evaluated on a real-life wireless network of PTZ capable cameras.

Distributed algorithms have recently gained immense popularity. With regards to computer vision applications, distributed multi-target tracking in a camera network is a fundamental problem. The goal is for all cameras to have accurate state estimates for all targets. Distributed estimation algorithms work by exchanging information between sensors that are communication neighbors. Vision-based distributed multi-target state estimation has at least two characteristics that distinguishes it from other applications. First, cameras are directional sensors and often neighboring sensors may not be sensing the same targets, i.e., they are naive with respect to that target. Second, in the presence of clutter and multiple targets, each camera must solve a data association problem. This paper presents an information-weighted, consensus-based, distributed multi-target tracking algorithm referred to as the Multi-target Information Consensus (MTIC) algorithm that is designed to address both the naivety and the data association problems. It converges to the centralized minimum mean square error estimate. The proposed MTIC algorithm and its extensions to non-linear camera models, termed as the Extended MTIC (EMTIC), are robust to false measurements and limited resources like power, bandwidth and the real-time operational requirements. Simulation and experimental analysis are provided to support the theoretical results.

Many applications demand high-precision navigation in urban environments. Two frequency real-time kinematic (RTK) Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are too expensive for low-cost or consumer-grade projects. As single-frequency GPS receivers are getting less expensive and more capable, more people are utilizing single-frequency RTK GPS techniques to achieve high accuracy in such applications. However, compared with dual-frequency receivers, it is much more difficult to resolve the integer ambiguity vector using single-frequency phase measurements and therefore more difficult to achieve reliable high-precision navigation. This paper presents a real-time sliding-window estimator that tightly integrates differential GPS and an inertial measurement unit to achieve reliable high-precision navigation performance in GPS-challenged urban environments using low-cost single-frequency GPS receivers. Moreover, this paper proposes a novel method to utilize the phase measurements, without resolving the integer ambiguity vector. Experimental results demonstrate real-time position estimation performance at the decimeter level. Furthermore, the novel use of phase measurements improves the robustness of the estimator to pseudorange multipath error.

Due to their high fault-tolerance, ease of installation and scalability to large networks, distributed algorithms have recently gained immense popularity in the sensor networks community, especially in computer vision. Multi-target tracking in a camera network is one of the fundamental problems in this domain. Distributed estimation algorithms work by exchanging information between sensors that are communication neighbors. Since most cameras are directional sensors, it is often the case that neighboring sensors may not be sensing the same target. Such sensors that do not have information about a target are termed as ``naive'' with respect to that target. In this paper, we propose consensus-based distributed multi-target tracking algorithms in a camera network that are designed to address this issue of naivety. The estimation errors in tracking and data association, as well as the effect of naivety, are jointly addressed leading to the development of an information-weighted consensus algorithm, which we term as the Multi-target Information Consensus (MTIC) algorithm. The incorporation of the probabilistic data association mechanism makes the MTIC algorithm very robust to false measurements/clutter. Experimental analysis is provided to support the theoretical results.

Distributed algorithms in the sensors networks community usually require each sensor to have its own measurement. In practice, this constraint can not always be met. For example, in a camera network, all cameras might not observe a particular target as cameras are directional sensors and have a limited field-of-view (FOV). Moreover, different sensors might provide different quality measures related to different elements of the measurement vector depending on various factors as directionality, occlusion etc. This requires the designing of a new type of distributed algorithm that considers the quality and/or absence of measurements. In this paper, we present a distributed algorithm to compute the maximum likelihood estimate of the state of a target viewed by the network of cameras, taking into account the above-mentioned factors. We provide step-by-step derivation along with theoretical guarantee of optimality and convergence of the method. Experimental results are provided to show the performance of the proposed algorithm.

The performance of dynamic scene algorithms often suffers because of the inability to effectively acquire features on the targets, particularly when they are distributed over a wide field of view. In this paper, we propose an integrated analysis and control framework for a pan, tilt, zoom (PTZ) camera network in order to maximize various scene understanding performance criteria (e.g., tracking accuracy, best shot, and image resolution) through dynamic camera-to-target assignment and efficient feature acquisition. Moreover, we consider the situation where processing is distributed across the network since it is often unrealistic to have all the image data at a central location. In such situations, the cameras, although autonomous, must collaborate among themselves because each camera's PTZ parameter entails constraints on the others. Motivated by recent work in cooperative control of sensor networks, we propose a distributed optimization strategy, which can be modeled as a game involving the cameras and targets. The cameras gain by reducing the error covariance of the tracked targets or through higher resolution feature acquisition, which, however, comes at the risk of losing the dynamic target. Through the optimization of this reward-versus-risk tradeoff, we are able to control the PTZ parameters of the cameras and assign them to targets dynamically. The tracks, upon which the control algorithm is dependent, are obtained through a consensus estimation algorithm whereby cameras can arrive at a consensus on the state of each target through a negotiation strategy. We analyze the performance of this collaborative sensing strategy in active camera networks in a simulation environment, as well as a real-life camera network.

Sensor-aided inertial navigation has successfully been used for decades for localization of a roving body. When the rover is known to be stationary, artificial “stationary” measurements (i.e., zero velocity and/or zero angular rate) may be imposed. This corrects the velocity, attitude, and inertial measurement unit (IMU) biases, which decreases the rate of drift of the position and attitude. Implementation requires reliable automated tests to detect periods when the vehicle is stationary. Due to cost concerns, methods that use sensors that are already on the vehicle are preferred. This paper reviews existing stationary detection methods and proposes a new frequency domain approach, using only IMU data, to detect stationarity, with specifications and analysis for land vehicles. The performance of this new approach is evaluated in both theory and practice. In addition, this paper presents analytic and numeric evaluations of the observability of the inertial navigation system (INS) error states with stationary updates. Improvements in localization performance in an INS with stationary detection and aiding is shown experimentally.

Many intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications will increasingly rely on lane-level vehicle positioning that requires high accuracy, bandwidth, availability, and integrity. Lane-level positioning methods must reliably work in real time in a wide range of environments, spanning rural to urban areas. Traditional positioning sensors such as the Global Navigation Satellite Systems may have poor performance in dense urban areas, where obstacles block satellite signals. This paper presents a sensor fusion technique that uses computer vision and differential pseudorange Global Positioning System (DGPS) measurements to aid an inertial navigation system (INS) in challenging environments where GPS signals are limited and/or unreliable. To supplement limited DGPS measurements, this method uses mapped landmarks that were measured through a priori observations (e.g., traffic light location data), taking advantage of existing infrastructure that is abundant within suburban/urban environments. For example, traffic lights are easily detected by color vision sensors in both day and night conditions. A tightly coupled estimation process is employed to use observables from satellite signals and known feature observables from a camera to correct an INS that is formulated as an extended Kalman filter. A traffic light detection method is also outlined, where the projected feature uncertainty ellipse is utilized to perform data association between a predicted feature and a set of detected features. Real-time experimental results from real-world settings are presented to validate the proposed localization method.

This paper considers tracking control for single-input, single-output nonaffine dynamic systems. A performance-dependent self-organizing approximation-based approach is proposed. The designer specifies a positive tracking error criterion. The self-organizing approximation-based controller then monitors the tracking performance and adds basis elements only as needed to achieve the tracking specification. Even though the system is not affine, the approach is defined such that the approximated function is independent of the control variable u. Stability is proved and the self-organization is derived in a Lyapunov-based methodology. To illustrate certain novel aspects of the proposed controller, a numerical example is included.

Camera networks are being deployed for various applications like security and surveillance, disaster response and environmental modeling. However, there is little automated processing of the data. Moreover, most methods for multicamera analysis are centralized schemes that require the data to be present at a central server. In many applications, this is prohibitively expensive, both technically and economically. In this paper, we investigate distributed scene analysis algorithms by leveraging upon concepts of consensus that have been studied in the context of multiagent systems, but have had little applications in video analysis. Each camera estimates certain parameters based upon its own sensed data which is then shared locally with the neighboring cameras in an iterative fashion, and a final estimate is arrived at in the network using consensus algorithms. We specifically focus on two basic problems-tracking and activity recognition. For multitarget tracking in a distributed camera network, we show how the Kalman-Consensus algorithm can be adapted to take into account the directional nature of video sensors and the network topology. For the activity recognition problem, we derive a probabilistic consensus scheme that combines the similarity scores of neighboring cameras to come up with a probability for each action at the network level. Thorough experimental results are shown on real data along with a quantitative analysis.

This paper considers the design of control laws for multiple mechanical systems with parameter uncertainty such that the state of each system converges to a point which moves along a desired trajectory. Adaptive cooperative control laws are proposed with the aid of the passivity property of system dynamics and the results for graph theory. As an application, the proposed results are used to solve the cooperative control problem of multiple mobile robots with parameter uncertainty such that multiple mobile robots converge to a desired pattern which moves along a desired trajectory. To show effectiveness of the proposed results, simulation results are presented.

Adaptive approximation-based control typically uses approximators with a predefined set of basis functions. Recently, spatially dependent methods have defined self-organizing approximators where new locally supported basis elements were incorporated when existing basis elements were insufficiently excited. In this paper, performance-dependent self-organizing approximators will be defined. The designer specifies a positive tracking error criteria. The self-organizing approximation-based controller then monitors the tracking performance and adds basis elements only as needed to achieve the tracking specification. The method of this paper is applicable to general nth-order input-state feedback linearizable systems. This paper includes a complete stability analysis and a detailed simulation example.

This paper is concerned with tracking control problems for nonlinear systems that are not affine in the control signal and that contain unknown nonlinearities in the system dynamic equations. This paper develops a piecewise linear approximation to the unknown functions during the system operation. New control and parameter adaptation algorithms are designed and analyzed using Lyapunov-like methods. The objectives are to achieve semiglobal stability of the state, accurate tracking of bounded reference signals contained within a known domain , and at least boundedness of the function approximator parameter estimates. Numerical simulations are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the learning algorithm.

This paper presents a behavior-based adaptive mission planner (AMP)to trace a chemical plume to its source and reliably declare the source location. The proposed AMP is implemented on a REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)equipped with multiple types of sensors that measure chemical concentration,the flow velocity vector, and AUV position, depth, altitude, attitude, and speed. This paper describes the methods and results from experiments conducted in November 2002 on San Clemente Island, CA, using a plume of Rhodamine dye developed in a turbulent fluid flow (i.e., near-shore ocean conditions). These experiments demonstrated chemical plume tracing over 100 m and source declaration accuracy relative to the nominal source location on the order of tens of meters. The designed maneuvers are divided into four behavior types: finding a plume,tracing the plume, reacquiring the plume, and declaring the source location. The tracing and reacquiring behaviors are inspired by male moths flying up wind along a pheromone plume to locate a sexually receptive female. All behaviors are formulated by perception and action modules and translated into chemical plume-tracing algorithms suitable for implementation on a REMUS AUV. To coordinate the different behaviors, the subsumption architecture is adopted to define and arbitrate the behavior priorities. AUVs capable of such feats would have applicability in searching for environmentally interesting phenomena, unexploded ordnance, undersea wreckage, and sources of hazardous chemicals or pollutants.

This paper addresses the problem of estimating a likelihood map for the location of the source of a chemical plume using an autonomous vehicle as a sensor probe in a fluid flow. The fluid flow is assumed to have a high Reynolds number. Therefore, the dispersion of the chemical is dominated by turbulence, resulting in an intermittent chemical signal. The vehicle is capable of detecting above-threshold chemical concentration and sensing the fluid flow velocity at the vehicle location. This paper reviews instances of biological plume tracing and reviews previous strategies for a vehicle-based plume tracing. The main contribution is a new source-likelihood mapping approach based on Bayesian inference methods. Using this Bayesian methodology, the source-likelihood map is propagated through time and updated in response to both detection and nondetection events. Examples are included that use data from in-water testing to compare the mapping approach derived herein with the map derived using a previously existing technique.

A feedback control methodology is presented for online approximation based backstepping control of non-linear dynamical systems subject to magnitude, rate, and bandwidth constraints on the state and the actuators. The robustness issue with respect to functional approximation errors is addressed in a rigorous manner. The stability properties of the proposed design methodology are derived.

An adaptive composite control technique was suggested before for nonlinear adaptive control with statistical learning methods. While this original work was restricted to a simple class of nonlinear SISO systems that were linear in the inputs, in this paper we present a more general treatment of learning a composite controller for the class of nonlinear systems characterized by the form x/spl dot/ = f(x) + g(x)u. We would first examine such systems in the first order SISO framework, and present a stability proof including a parameter projection method that is needed to avoid potential singularities during adaptation. Second, we generalize our adaptive controller to higher order SISO systems, and discuss the application to MIMO problems. We evaluate our theoretical control framework in numerical simulations to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed learning adaptive controller for rapid convergence and high accuracy of control.

This paper describes the design, analysis, implementation, and experimental results of a triple redundancy navigation system incorporating magnetometer, inertial, and carrier phase differential Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements. The navigation system is able to accurately estimate vehicle attitude (including yaw) as long as the vehicle velocity is not zero. The motivating application was lateral vehicle control for intelligent highway systems. The system was designed to operate reliably whether or not GPS and magnetometer measurements were available. The navigation system provides vehicle position, velocity, acceleration, pitch and roll, yaw, and angular rates at 150 Hz with accuracies (standard deviation) of 2.8 cm, 0.8 cm/s, 2.2 cm/s/s, 0.03/spl deg/, 0.18/spl deg/, and 0.1/spl deg//s. This navigation state vector was processed to produce a control state vector at approximately 30 Hz. This triplicate redundancy navigation system reliably demonstrated lateral vehicle control in the following situations: both GPS and magnetometer aiding the inertial navigation system (INS), GPS-aided INS, magnetometer aided-INS, and switching between GPS and magnetometer aiding of the INS at random times.

This paper addresses the problem of mapping likely locations of a chemical source using an autonomous vehicle operating in a fluid flow. The paper reviews biological plume-tracing concepts, reviews previous strategies for vehicle-based plume tracing, and presents a new plume mapping approach based on hidden Markov methods (HMM). HMM provide efficient algorithms for predicting the likelihood of odor detection versus position, the likelihood of source location versus position, the most likely path taken by the odor to a given location, and the path between two points most likely to result in odor detection. All four are useful for solving the odor source localization problem using an autonomous vehicle. The vehicle is assumed to be capable of detecting above threshold chemical concentration and sensing the fluid flow velocity at the vehicle location. The fluid flow is assumed to vary with space and time, and to have a high Reynolds number (Re>10).

This paper introduces a provably stable adaptive learning controller which employs nonlinear function approximation with automatic growth of the learning network according to the nonlinearities and working domain of the control system. The unknown function in the dynamical system is approximated by piecewise linear models using the nonparametric regression technique. Local models are allocated as necessary and their parameters are optimized online. Inspired by composite adaptive control methods, the proposed learning adaptive control algorithm uses both the tracking error and the estimation error to update the parameters. We provide Lyapunov analyses that demonstrate the stability properties of the learning controller. Numerical simulations illustrate the rapid convergence of the tracking error and the automatic structure adaptation capability of the function approximator.

This paper extends the application of neurocontrol approaches to a new class of nonlinear systems diffeomorphic to output feedback nonlinear systems with unmeasured states. A neural-based adaptive observer is introduced for state estimation as well as system identification using only output measurements during online operation. System identification is achieved via the online approximation of a priori unknown functions. The controller is designed using the backstepping control design procedure. Leakage terms in the adaptive laws and nonlinear damping terms in the backstepping controller are introduced to prevent instability from arising due to the inherent approximation error. A primary benefit of the online function approximation is the reduction of approximation errors, which allows reduction of both the observer and controller gains. A semi-global stability analysis for the proposed approach is provided and the feasibility is investigated by an illustrative simulation example.

We propose in this paper an enhanced fuzzy P+ID controller to improve control performance in both dynamic transient and steady-state periods for mechanical manipulators under uncertainty. The fuzzy P+ID controller adds only two additional parameters to be tuned relative to the original PID controller. One of these parameters is mainly used to reduce a steady-state error. The other is used to speed up the dynamic response. A simulation study and experimental results for a two-link manipulator with uncertainty demonstrate the superior control performance of the proposed fuzzy P+ID controllers.

Proposes a neuro-fuzzy method to model the dynamic behavior of complex systems based on real experimental data. First, we investigate the firing strength of rules by a fuzzy C-means clustering method. Then, we retrieve the membership functions of input variables by a neuro-fuzzy network. Finally, we identify the parameters of linear local models by recursive least squares. In particular, we applied this method to construct the dynamics of a boiler combustion process.

This paper presents a stable nonparametric adaptive control approach using a piecewise local linear approximator. The continuous piecewise linear approximator is developed and its universal approximation capability is proved. The controller architecture is based on adaptive feedback linearization plus sliding mode control. A time varying activation region is introduced for efficient self-organization of the approximator during operation.We modify the adaptive control approach for piecewise linear approximation and self-organizing structures. In addition, we provide analyses of asymptotic stability of the tracking error and parameter convergence for the proposed adaptive control scheme with the on-line self-organizing structure. The method with a deadzone is also discussed to prevent a high-frequency input which might excite the unmodeled dynamics in practical applications. The application of the piecewise linear adaptive control method is demonstrated by a computational simulation.

This article analyzes the evaluation of approximation accuracy in on-line applications. In particular, it is first shown that the most commonly used approximation accuracy evaluation method (e.g., analysis of training or tracking error) is not in itself sufficient to demonstrate proper function approximation. In spite of this, many articles use tracking (training) errors as the means to demonstrate successful function approximation. This article presents two alternative methods for the evaluation of on-line performance. Related issues are probably approximately correct learning from statistics and persistence of excitation from adaptive control.

This paper investigates nonparametric nonlinear adaptive control under passive learning conditions. Passive learning refers to the normal situation in control applications in which the system inputs cannot be selected freely by the learning system. This article also analyzes the stability of both the system state and approximator parameter estimates. Stability results are presented for both parametric (known model structure with unknown parameters) and nonparametric (unknown model structure resulting in epsilon-approximation error) adaptive control applications. Upper bounds on the tracking error are developed. The article also analyzes the persistence (PE) of excitation conditions required for parameter convergence. In addition, to a general PE analysis, the article presents a specific analysis pertinent to approximators that are composed of basis elements with local support. In particular, the analysis shows that as long as a reduced dimension subvector of the regressor vector is PE, then a specialized form of exponential convergence will be achieved. This condition is critical, since the general PE conditions are not practical in most control applications. In addition to the PE results, this article explicitly defines the regions over which the approximator converges when locally supported basis elements are used. The results are demonstrated throughout via examples.