Dynamic Environment Navigation and Pathplanning for Assistive Robots using Nonlinear Predictive Control

本研究项目将为医疗保健驱动的移动辅助机器人提供专业路径规划和避障解决方案。这项拟议中的研究是与Crosswing公司合作进行的，后者开发了一种名为VirtualME的辅助机器人原型。该机器人通过将自主监控平台与复杂的通信系统相结合，为老年人提供服务。VirtualME项目的目标是通过安全监控，帮助老年人在自己的环境中更独立地生活，同时减轻人口老龄化对医疗系统的压力。它适合放置在私人家庭中，旨在与环境和远程主管自主互动。它成功的一个关键需求是能够在一个已知结构的环境中移动，但未知的移动障碍。此外，至关重要的是，当它在运动时，它可以与它所服务的老年人或它所处环境中的特定物体保持最大的视觉接触。此外，当潜在的移动障碍物对给定路径造成阻碍时，机器人必须能够自主地重定向路径以完成任务。目前，VirtualME只能在预先设定的方向上移动，并且不能自主地与环境互动。一些预测控制路径规划的基础已经被纳入，但与移动障碍物和路径规划的相互作用是不可用的。本研究将开发一种非线性预测控制器来完成路径规划和避障。这将使VirtualME能够以安全的方式放置在有移动障碍物的环境中。将这些功能整合到当前的VirtualME平台将是一项重大成就，这将满足Crosswing移动辅助技术持续发展的关键需求。在上述环境中的自主控制实现之前，VirtualME机器人的持续开发部署无法完成。

This research project will provide solutions for specialized path planning and obstacle avoidance for a healthcare motivated mobile assistive robot. The proposed research is in collaboration with Crosswing Inc, who have developed a prototype assistive robot called VirtualME. This robot is designed to serve the elderly population by combining an autonomous monitoring platform with a sophisticated communication system. The goal of the VirtualME project is to help the elderly live more independently in their own surroundings with safety monitoring while simultaneously alleviating the strain of an aging population on the healthcare system. It is geared towards placement in a private home and is meant to interact autonomously with its environment and with a remote supervisor. A critical need for its success is the ability for it to move around an environment with a known structure, but unknown moving obstacles. Furthermore, it is critical that while in motion it can maintain maximal visual contact with the elderly person it is serving or with a specified object in it's environment. In addition, when potentially moving obstacles create a block to a given path, the robot must be capable of autonomously redirecting it's path to accomplish it's tasks. Currently the VirtualME is only capable of motion in a preprogrammed direction with fixed orientation and does not interact autonomously with its environment. The foundation for some predictive control path planning has been incorporated, but interaction with moving obstacles and in the path planning is not available. This research project will develop a nonlinear predictive controller to accomplish the path-planning and obstacle avoidance. This will give the VirtualME the ability to be placed into an environment with moving obstacles in a safe manner. Incorporating these features into the current VirtualME platform would be a major accomplishment, which will address a critical need for the continued development of Crosswing's mobile assistive technology. Deployment of the VirtualME robot for continued development cannot be accomplished until autonomous control in the described environments has been implemented.