Mobile robotic sensors for environmental monitoring using gaussian markov random field
- Authors: Nguyen, Linh , Kodagoda, Sarath , Ranasinghe, Ravindra , Dissanayake, Gamini
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Robotica Vol. 39, no. 5 (2021), p. 862-884
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- Description: This paper addresses the issue of monitoring spatial environmental phenomena of interest utilizing information collected by a network of mobile, wireless, and noisy sensors that can take discrete measurements as they navigate through the environment. It is proposed to employ Gaussian Markov random field (GMRF) represented on an irregular discrete lattice by using the stochastic partial differential equations method to model the physical spatial field. It then derives a GMRF-based approach to effectively predict the field at unmeasured locations, given available observations, in both centralized and distributed manners. Furthermore, a novel but efficient optimality criterion is then proposed to design centralized and distributed adaptive sampling strategies for the mobile robotic sensors to find the most informative sampling paths in taking future measurements. By taking advantage of conditional independence property in the GMRF, the adaptive sampling optimization problem is proven to be resolved in a deterministic time. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is compared and demonstrated using pre-published data sets with appealing results. Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.
An efficient RANSAC hypothesis evaluation using sufficient statistics for RGB-D pose estimation
- Authors: Senthooran, Ilankalkone , Murshed, Manzur , Barca, Jan , Kamruzzaman, Joarder , Chung, Hoam
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Autonomous Robots Vol. 43, no. 5 (2019), p. 1257-1270
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- Description: Achieving autonomous flight in GPS-denied environments begins with pose estimation in three-dimensional space, and this is much more challenging in an MAV in a swarm robotic system due to limited computational resources. In vision-based pose estimation, outlier detection is the most time-consuming step. This usually involves a RANSAC procedure using the reprojection-error method for hypothesis evaluation. Realignment-based hypothesis evaluation method is observed to be more accurate, but the considerably slower speed makes it unsuitable for robots with limited resources. We use sufficient statistics of least-squares minimisation to speed up this process. The additive nature of these sufficient statistics makes it possible to compute pose estimates in each evaluation by reusing previously computed statistics. Thus estimates need not be calculated from scratch each time. The proposed method is tested on standard RANSAC, Preemptive RANSAC and R-RANSAC using benchmark datasets. The results show that the use of sufficient statistics speeds up the outlier detection process with realignment hypothesis evaluation for all RANSAC variants, achieving an execution speed of up to 6.72 times.
An improved simplex-based adaptive evolutionary digital filter and its application for fault detection of rolling element bearings
- Authors: Xiao, Huifang , Shao, Yimin , Zhou, Xiaojun , Wilcox, Steven
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Measurement: Journal of the International Measurement Confederation Vol. 55, no. (2014), p. 25-32
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- Description: The de-noising performance and convergence behavior of the adaptive evolutionary digital filter (EDF) are restricted by the factors of constant evolutionary coefficients and taking the reciprocal of average energy of residual signal as the fitness function. In this paper, an improved adaptive evolutionary digital filter based on the simplex method (EDF-SM) is proposed to overcome the shortcomings of the original EDF. A new evolutionary rule was constructed by introducing the simplex-based mutating method and by then combining this with the original cloning and mating methods. The reciprocal of sample entropy was taken as the fitness function and variable evolutionary coefficients were employed. Numerical examples show that the proposed EDF-SM exhibits a higher convergence rate and a better de-noising behavior than the other EDFs. The effectiveness of the proposed method in discovering fault characteristics and detecting faults of rolling element bearings is supported using an experimental test. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Extraction and processing of real time strain of embedded FBG sensors using a fixed filter FBG circuit and an artificial neural network
- Authors: Kahandawa, Gayan , Epaarachchi, Jayantha , Wang, Hao , Canning, John , Lau, Alan
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Measurement: Journal of the International Measurement Confederation Vol. 46, no. 10 (2013), p. 4045-4051
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- Description: Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors have been used in the development of structural health monitoring (SHM) and damage detection systems for advanced composite structures over several decades. Unfortunately, to date only a handful of appropriate configurations and algorithm sare available for using in SHM systems have been developed. This paper reveals a novel configuration of FBG sensors to acquire strain reading and an integrated statistical approach to analyse data in real time. The proposed configuration has proven its capability to overcome practical constraints and the engineering challenges associated with FBG-based SHM systems. A fixed filter decoding system and an integrated artificial neural network algorithm for extracting strain from embedded FBG sensor were proposed and experimentally proved. Furthermore, the laboratory level experimental data was used to verify the accuracy of the system and it was found that the error levels were less than 0.3% in predictions. The developed SMH system using this technology has been submitted to US patent office and will be available for use of aerospace applications in due course. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A numerical control algorithm for navigation of an operator-driven snake-like robot with 4WD-4WS segments
- Authors: Percy, Andrew , Spark, Ian
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Robotica Vol. 29, no. 3 (2010), p. 471-482
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- Description: This paper presents a new algorithm for the control of a snake-like robot with passive joints and active wheels. Each segment has four autonomously driven and steered wheels. The algorithm approximates the ideal solution in which all wheels on a segment have the same centre of curvature with wheel speeds, providing cooperative redundancy. Each hitch point joining segments traverses the same path, which is determined by an operator, prescribing the path curvature and front hitch speed. The numerical algorithm developed in this paper is simulation tested against a previously derived analytical solution for a predetermined path. Further simulations are carried out to show the effects of changing curvature and front hitch speed on hitch path, wheel angles and wheel speeds for a one, two and three segment robot.