Safe Navigation of Robots in a Dynamic and Uncertain World

机器人技术将在未来几年彻底改变我们社会的几个方面，从我们移动人和物的方式到医疗保健再到制造业。特别是，移动机器人技术已经成熟，从小型创业公司到世界科技巨头，各行各业都在积极追求自动驾驶汽车和无人驾驶飞行器（无人机）。虽然一些产品将在未来几年上市，但它们不会完全自主，这意味着它们不会在人类操作员可以处理的所有条件下运行。要做到这一点，还需要进行大量的研究。******移动机器人的实际应用是具有挑战性的，因为操作环境（例如，我们的道路，我们的天空，大仓库）可能很大，杂乱，动态，未知/不确定。这意味着关键的自治功能，包括定位、映射、规划和控制，必须解决这些挑战。在机器人技术领域，我们刚刚触及到制造可以在没有人类帮助的情况下长时间运行的系统的表面。******该研究项目将继续解决与移动机器人的定位、绘图、规划和控制相关的长期自主挑战。特别是，我们将解决(i)鲁棒定位，（ii）多目标跟踪和预测，（iii）知识/不确定性表示，以及（iv）安全规划。解决这些问题需要新的传感模式、基于机器学习和控制/估计理论的新算法、大数据/云计算的利用以及广泛的现场测试。******我们将创建新的自主软件，包括导航移动机器人通过动态和不确定世界所需的所有关键功能。在此过程中，我们将与工业合作伙伴密切合作，将我们的技术应用于现实世界，如仓库机器人、自动驾驶汽车和无人机送货系统。加拿大正在迅速发展其在这些领域的能力，我们希望在塑造未来所需的技术和人才方面做出重大贡献。

***Robotics is poised to revolutionize several aspects of our society in the coming years from the way we move people and things around to healthcare to manufacturing. In particular, mobile robotics technology has matured to the point that self-driving cars and unmanned aerial vehicles (a.k.a., drones) are being actively pursued by industry, from small startups to the world's technology giants. While some products will come to market in the next few years, they will not be fully autonomous, meaning they will not operate under all conditions that a human operator can handle. To achieve this, a great deal more research is needed.******Real applications of mobile robots are challenging because the operating environment (e.g., our roadways, our skies, big warehouses) can be large, cluttered, dynamic, and unknown/uncertain. This means that the key autonomy functions, which include localization, mapping, planning, and control, must address these challenges. Within robotics, we have barely scratched the surface when it comes to making systems that can operate for very long periods of time without human assistance.******This program of research will continue to tackle these long-term autonomy challenges associated with localization, mapping, planning, and control of mobile robots. In particular, we will address (i) robust localization, (ii) multi-object tracking and prediction, (iii) knowledge/uncertainty representation, and (iv) safe planning. Tackling these issues will require novel sensing modalities, new algorithms rooted in machine learning and control/estimation theory, exploitation of big data/cloud computing, and extensive field testing.******We will create new autonomy software comprising all the key functions needed to navigate mobile robots through a dynamic and uncertain world. As we do so, we will work closely with industrial partners to transfer our technology to real-world applications such as warehouse robots, self-driving cars, and drone delivery systems. Canada is rapidly growing its capabilities in these areas and we hope to make big contributions in terms of the technology and people needed to shape the future.