Safe Navigation of Robots in a Dynamic and Uncertain World

*机器人准备在未来几年给我们社会的几个方面带来革命性的变化，从我们移动人和东西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到了无人驾驶汽车和无人驾驶飞行器(也就是无人机)正在被工业界积极追逐的地步，从小型初创公司到世界科技巨头。虽然一些产品将在未来几年内投放市场，但它们不会完全自主，这意味着它们不会在人工操作员可以处理的所有条件下操作。要实现这一点，还需要更多的研究。*移动机器人的真正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、大型仓库)可能是巨大的、杂乱的、动态的和未知/不确定的。这意味着关键的自主职能，包括本地化、测绘、规划和控制，必须解决这些挑战。在机器人学中，我们在制造无需人工帮助的系统方面只触及了皮毛。*这项研究计划将继续解决与移动机器人的本地化、测绘、规划和控制相关的长期自主挑战。特别是，我们将讨论(I)稳健定位，(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。解决这些问题将需要新的传感模式、植根于机器学习和控制/估计理论的新算法、大数据/云计算的开发以及广泛的现场测试。*我们将创建新的自主软件，包括在动态和不确定的世界中导航移动机器人所需的所有关键功能。在这样做的同时，我们将与工业合作伙伴密切合作，将我们的技术转移到仓库机器人、自动驾驶汽车和无人机交付系统等现实世界的应用中。加拿大在这些领域的能力正在迅速增强，我们希望在塑造未来所需的技术和人员方面做出重大贡献。

***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.