Traversability Assessment and Trajectory Planning of Unmanned Ground Vehicles with Suspension Systems on Rough Terrain.

This paper presents a traversability assessment method and a trajectory planning method. They are key features for the navigation of an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) in a non-planar environment. In this work, a 3D light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor is used to obtain the geometric information about a rough terrain surface. For a given SE(2) pose of the vehicle and a specific vehicle model, the SE(3) pose of the vehicle is estimated based on LiDAR points, and then a traversability is computed. The traversability tells the vehicle the effects of its interaction with the rough terrain. Note that the traversability is computed on demand during trajectory planning, so there is not any explicit terrain discretization. The proposed trajectory planner finds an initial path through the non-holonomic A*, which is a modified form of the conventional A* planner. A path is a sequence of poses without timestamps. Then, the initial path is optimized in terms of the traversability, using the method of Lagrange multipliers. The optimization accounts for the model of the vehicle's suspension system. Therefore, the optimized trajectory is dynamically feasible, and the trajectory tracking error is small. The proposed methods were tested in both the simulation and the real-world experiments. The simulation experiments were conducted in a simulator called Gazebo, which uses a physics engine to compute the vehicle motion. The experiments were conducted in various non-planar experiments. The results indicate that the proposed methods could accurately estimate the SE(3) pose of the vehicle. Besides, the trajectory cost of the proposed planner was lower than the trajectory costs of other state-of-the-art trajectory planners.

Dynamic Fluid in a Porous Transducer-Based Angular Accelerometer.

This paper presents a theoretical model of the dynamics of liquid flow in an angular accelerometer comprising a porous transducer in a circular tube of liquid. Wave speed and dynamic permeability of the transducer are considered to describe the relation between angular acceleration and the differential pressure on the transducer. The permeability and streaming potential coupling coefficient of the transducer are determined in the experiments, and special prototypes are utilized to validate the theoretical model in both the frequency and time domains. The model is applied to analyze the influence of structural parameters on the frequency response and the transient response of the fluidic system. It is shown that the radius of the circular tube and the wave speed affect the low frequency gain, as well as the bandwidth of the sensor. The hydrodynamic resistance of the transducer and the cross-section radius of the circular tube can be used to control the transient performance. The proposed model provides the basic techniques to achieve the optimization of the angular accelerometer together with the methodology to control the wave speed and the hydrodynamic resistance of the transducer.

A High-Spin Rate Measurement Method for Projectiles Using a Magnetoresistive Sensor Based on Time-Frequency Domain Analysis.

Traditional artillery guidance can significantly improve the attack accuracy and overall combat efficiency of projectiles, which makes it more adaptable to the information warfare of the future. Obviously, the accurate measurement of artillery spin rate, which has long been regarded as a daunting task, is the basis of precise guidance and control. Magnetoresistive (MR) sensors can be applied to spin rate measurement, especially in the high-spin and high-g projectile launch environment. In this paper, based on the theory of a MR sensor measuring spin rate, the mathematical relationship model between the frequency of MR sensor output and projectile spin rate was established through a fundamental derivation. By analyzing the characteristics of MR sensor output whose frequency varies with time, this paper proposed the Chirp z-Transform (CZT) time-frequency (TF) domain analysis method based on the rolling window of a Blackman window function (BCZT) which can accurately extract the projectile spin rate. To put it into practice, BCZT was applied to measure the spin rate of 155 mm artillery projectile. After extracting the spin rate, the impact that launch rotational angular velocity and aspect angle have on the extraction accuracy of the spin rate was analyzed. Simulation results show that the BCZT TF domain analysis method can effectively and accurately measure the projectile spin rate, especially in a high-spin and high-g projectile launch environment.

Frequency split elimination method for a solid-state vibratory angular rate gyro with an imperfect axisymmetric-shell resonator.

The resonator of a solid-state vibratory gyro is responsible for sensing angular motion. Frequency splitting of an axisymmetric-shell resonator is a common problem caused by manufacturing defects. The defect causes a frequency difference between two working modes which consist of two nodes and two antinodes. The difference leads to the loss of gyroscopic effect, and thus the resonator cannot sense angular motion. In this paper, the resonator based on an axisymmetric multi-curved surface shell structure is investigated and an approach to eliminate frequency splits is proposed. Since axisymmetric multi-curved surface shell resonators are too complex to be modeled, this paper proposes a simplified model by focusing on a common property of the axisymmetric shell. The resonator with stochastic imperfections is made equivalent to a perfect shell with an imperfect mass point. Rayleigh's energy method is used in the theoretical analysis. Finite element modeling is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the elimination approach. In real cases, a resonator's frequency split is eliminated by the proposed approach. In this paper, errors in the theoretical analysis are discussed and steps to be taken when the deviation between assumptions and the real situation is large are figured out. The resonator has good performance after processing. The elimination approach can be applied to any kind of solid-state vibratory gyro resonators with an axisymmetric shell structure.

Research on the signal process of a bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro.

A bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro, which is inspired by the Chinese traditional bell, is a kind of axisymmetric shell resonator gyroscope. Its sensitive element is a vibratory-like Chinese traditional bell, using a piezoelectric element on the wall of the vibrator to detect the standing wave's precession to solve the input angular rate. This work mainly studies the circuit system of a bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro. It discusses the process of circuit system design, analysis and experiment, in detail, providing the foundation to develop a bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro. Since the bell-shaped resonator's curved structure has the characteristics of large noise in the piezoelectric signal and large harmonics, this paper analyzes its working and signal detection method, then gives the whole plan of the circuit system, including the drive module, the detection module and the control loop. It also studies every part of the whole system, gives a detailed design and analysis process and proves part of the circuit system using digital simulation. At the end of the article, the test result of the circuit system shows that it can remove the disadvantages of the curved structure having large noise in the piezoelectric signal and large harmonics and is more effective at solving the input angular rate.

Unscented particle filtering for estimation of shipboard deformation based on inertial measurement units.

Shipboard is not an absolute rigid body. Many factors could cause deformations which lead to large errors of mounted devices, especially for the navigation systems. Such errors should be estimated and compensated effectively, or they will severely reduce the navigation accuracy of the ship. In order to estimate the deformation, an unscented particle filter method for estimation of shipboard deformation based on an inertial measurement unit is presented. In this method, a nonlinear shipboard deformation model is built. Simulations demonstrated the accuracy reduction due to deformation. Then an attitude plus angular rate match mode is proposed as a frame to estimate the shipboard deformation using inertial measurement units. In this frame, for the nonlinearity of the system model, an unscented particle filter method is proposed to estimate and compensate the deformation angles. Simulations show that the proposed method gives accurate and rapid deformation estimations, which can increase navigation accuracy after compensation of deformation.

Characterization of the bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro.

The bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro (abbreviated as BVG) is a novel shell vibratory gyroscope, which is inspired by the Chinese traditional bell. It sensitizes angular velocity through the standing wave precession effect. The bell-shaped resonator is a core component of the BVG and looks like the millimeter-grade Chinese traditional bell, such as QianLong Bell and Yongle Bell. It is made of Ni43CrTi, which is a constant modulus alloy. The exciting element, control element and detection element are uniformly distributed and attached to the resonator, respectively. This work presents the design, analysis and experimentation on the BVG. It is most important to analyze the vibratory character of the bell-shaped resonator. The strain equation, internal force and the resonator's equilibrium differential equation are derived in the orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system. When the input angular velocity is existent on the sensitive axis, an analysis of the vibratory character is performed using the theory of thin shells. On this basis, the mode shape function and the simplified second order normal vibration mode dynamical equation are obtained. The coriolis coupling relationship about the primary mode and secondary mode is established. The methods of the signal processing and control loop are presented. Analyzing the impact resistance property of the bell-shaped resonator, which is compared with other shell resonators using the Finite Element Method, demonstrates that BVG has the advantage of a better impact resistance property. A reasonable means of installation and a prototypal gyro are designed. The gyroscopic effect of the BVG is characterized through experiments. Experimental results show that the BVG has not only the advantages of low cost, low power, long work life, high sensitivity, and so on, but, also, of a simple structure and a better impact resistance property for low and medium angular velocity measurements.

Research on bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro's character of resonator.

Bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro (abbreviated as BVG) is a new type Coriolis vibratory gyro that was inspired by Chinese traditional clocks. The resonator fuses based on a variable thickness axisymmetric multicurved surface shell. Its characteristics can directly influence the performance of BVG. The BVG structure not only has capabilities of bearing high overload, high impact and, compared with the tuning fork, vibrating beam, shell and a comb structure, but also a higher frequency to overcome the influence of the disturbance of the exterior environment than the same sized hemispherical resonator gyroscope (HRG) and the traditional cylinder vibratory gyroscope. It can be widely applied in high dynamic low precision angular rate measurement occasions. The main work is as follows: the issue mainly analyzes the structure and basic principle, and investigates the bell-shaped resonator's mathematical model. The reasonable structural parameters are obtained from finite element analysis and an intelligent platform. Using the current solid vibration gyro theory analyzes the structural characteristics and principles of BVG. The bell-shaped resonator is simplified as a paraboloid of the revolution mechanical model, which has a fixed closed end and a free opened end. It obtains the natural frequency and vibration modes based on the theory of elasticity. The structural parameters are obtained from the orthogonal method by the research on the structural parameters of the resonator analysis. It obtains the modal analysis, stress analysis and impact analysis with the chosen parameters. Finally, using the turntable experiment verifies the gyro effect of the BVG.

Fault estimation and active fault-tolerant control for discrete-time systems in finite-frequency domain.

The active fault-tolerant control (FTC) problem for discrete-time systems in finite-frequency domain is addressed based on faults' estimation. By the descriptor system approach, the observers are designed such that the stability and H∞ performance index of dynamic error systems are analyzed in finite frequency domain. The estimation of faults is obtained by the designed observers. By using the estimation of faults, a H∞ FTC method is presented to show the stability analyses of closed-loop systems in term of GYP lemma. Numerical simulations are given to demonstrate proposed FTC methods' effectiveness.