Sandor S. Szabo

High-level mobility controller for a remotely operated unmanned land vehicle

The U.S. Army Laboratory Command, as part of the Department of Defense Robotics Testbed Program, is developing a testbed for cooperative, real-time control of unmanned land vehicles. The program entails the development and integration of many elements which allow the vehicles to perform both autonomous and teleoperated functions. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is supporting this program by developing the vehicle control system using the Real-time Control System (RCS) architecture. RCS is a hierarchical, sensory-based control system, initially developed for the control of industrial robots and automated manufacturing systems. NIST is developing the portions of RCS that control all vehicle mobility functions, coordinate the operations of the other subsystems on the vehicle, and communicate between the vehicle and the remote operator control station. This paper reviews the overall control system architecture, the design and implementation of the mobility and communication functions, and results from recent testing.

Control system architecture for a remotely operated unmanned land vehicle

Techbase Enhancements for Autonomous Machines (TEAM) is a joint effort among several US Army organizations, national laboratories, and commercial contractors to develop a vehicle control system that can support a mix of capabilities ranging from master-slave teleoperation to autonomous control. The overall TEAM control system architecture and the design of the mobility and communication functions are described. The architecture is based on the real-time control system (RCS), a hierarchical, sensory-based control system. In this application, RCS controls all vehicle mobility functions, coordinates the operations of the other subsystems on the vehicle, and communicates between the vehicle and the remote operator control station. The functional modules of the control system and their responsibilities are described, with emphasis placed on the modules that support mobility functions. The design of the mobility and communication subsystems and the implementation of the mobility and communication control systems are outlined.<<ETX>>

A real-time computer vision platform for mobile robot applications

Abstract A portable platform is described that supports real-time computer vision applications for mobile robots. This platform includes conventional processors, an image processing front-end system, and a controller for a pan/tilt/vergence head. The platform is ruggedized to withstand vibration during off-road driving. The platform has successfully supported experiments in video stabilization and detection of moving objects for outdoor surveillance, gradient-based and correlation-based image flow estimators, and indoor mobility using divergence of flow. These applications have been able to run at rates ranging from 3 to 15 Hz for image sizes from 64 × 64 to 256 × 256.

Validation results of specifications for motion control interoperability

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is participating in the Department of Energy Technologies Enabling Agile Manufacturing (TEAM) program to establish interface standards for machine tool, robot, and coordinate measuring machine controllers. At NIST, the focus is to validate potential application programming interfaces (APIs) that make it possible to exchange machine controller components with a minimal impact on the rest of the system. This validation is taking place in the enhanced machine controller (EMC) consortium and is in cooperation with users and vendors of motion control equipment. An area of interest is motion control, including closed-loop control of individual axes and coordinated path planning. Initial tests of the motion control APIs are complete. The APIs were implemented on two commercial motion control boards that run on two different machine tools. The results for a baseline set of APIs look promising, but several issues were raised. These include resolving differing approaches in how motions are programmed and defining a standard measurement of performance for motion control. This paper starts with a summary of the process used in developing a set of specifications for motion control interoperability. Next, the EMC architecture and its classification of motion control APIs into two classes, Servo Control and Trajectory Planning, are reviewed. Selected APIs are presented to explain the basic functionality and some of the major issues involved in porting the APIs to other motion controllers. The paper concludes with a summary of the main issues and ways to continue the standards process.

Integrating occlusion monitoring into human tracking for robot speed and separation monitoring

Collaborative robots are used in close proximity to humans to perform a variety of tasks, while more traditional industrial robots are required to be stopped whenever a human enters their work-volumes. Instead of relying on physical barriers or merely detecting when someone enters the area, the collaborative system must monitor the position of every person who enters the work space in time for the robot to react. The TC 184/SC 2/WG 3 Industrial Safety group within the International Organization for Standard(ISO) is developing the standards to help ensure collaborative robots operate safely. Collaborative robots require sophisticated sensing technologies that must handle dynamic interactions between the robot and the human. One potential safety risk is the occlusion of a safety sensors field of view due to placement of objects or the movement of people in front of a safety sensor. In this situation the robot could shut down as soon as even a single sensor was partially occluded. Unfortunately this could greatly diminish the extent to which the robot could work collaboratively. In this paper we examine how a human tracking system using multiple laser line scanners [3]was adapted to work with a robot Speed and Separation Monitoring (SSM) safety system and further modified to include occlusion monitoring.

Objective test and performance measurement of automotive crash warning systems

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under an interagency agreement with the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), is supporting development of objective test and measurement procedures for vehicle-based warning systems intended to warn an inattentive driver of imminent rear-end, road-departure and lane-change crash scenarios. The work includes development of track and on-road test procedures, and development of an independent measurement system, which together provide data for evaluating warning system performance. This paper will provide an overview of DOTs Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety System (IVBSS) program along with a review of the approach for objectively testing and measuring warning system performance.

Performance evaluation of a 3D imaging system for vehicle safety

The NIST Construction Metrology and Automation Group (CMAG), in cooperation with the NIST Intelligent Systems Division (ISD), is developing performance metrics and standard tests for the evaluation of 3D imaging systems used in autonomous mobility applications. This work supports the broader effort to develop open, consensus-based performance evaluation standards for a wide range of 3D imaging systems and applications through the ASTM E57 Committee on 3D Imaging Systems. This report presents initial efforts to characterize the range performance of a 3D imaging sensor that will be used in a performance measurement system for crash prevention and safety systems. Factors examined include range, target reflectance, target angle of incidence, and sensor azimuth.

An Independent Measurement System for Testing Automotive Crash Warning Systems

This report describes the National Institute of Standards and Technologys (NIST) participation in Phase I of the Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems (IVBSS) program, a safety research program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT). The goal of this initiative is to determine potential safety benefits and user acceptance of integrated rear-end, lane-change/merge and road departure crash warning systems for light vehicles and heavy commercial trucks. NISTs primary roles in the program included assisting in the development of verification test procedures, the design, construction, and characterization of an independent measurement system, and providing field support for vehicle test activities. The verification tests provide an objective means to evaluate warning system performance in a safe and controlled test-track environment.