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Affine Transformable Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Aron Mathias, Mohammad Ghufran, Jack Hughes, Hossein Rastgoftar

Abstract

This paper develops the proof of concept for a novel affine transformable unmanned ground vehicle (ATUGV) with the capability of safe and aggressive deformation while carrying multiple payloads. The ATUGV is a multi-body system with mobile robots that can be used to power the ATUGV morphable motion, powered cells to enclose the mobile robots, unpowered cells to contain payloads, and a deformable structure to integrate cells through bars and joints. The objective is that all powered and unpowered cells motion can safely track a desired affine transformation, where an affine transformation can be decomposed into translation, rigid body rotation, and deformation. To this end, the paper first uses a deep neural network to structure cell interconnection in such a way that every cell can freely move over the deformation plane, and the entire structure can reconfigurably deform to track a desired affine transformation. Then, the mobile robots, contained by the powered cells and stepper motors, regulating the connections of the powered and unpowered cells, design the proper controls so that all cells safely track the desired affine transformation. The functionality of the proposed ATUGV is validated through hardware experimentation and simulation.

Affine Transformable Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Abstract

This paper develops the proof of concept for a novel affine transformable unmanned ground vehicle (ATUGV) with the capability of safe and aggressive deformation while carrying multiple payloads. The ATUGV is a multi-body system with mobile robots that can be used to power the ATUGV morphable motion, powered cells to enclose the mobile robots, unpowered cells to contain payloads, and a deformable structure to integrate cells through bars and joints. The objective is that all powered and unpowered cells motion can safely track a desired affine transformation, where an affine transformation can be decomposed into translation, rigid body rotation, and deformation. To this end, the paper first uses a deep neural network to structure cell interconnection in such a way that every cell can freely move over the deformation plane, and the entire structure can reconfigurably deform to track a desired affine transformation. Then, the mobile robots, contained by the powered cells and stepper motors, regulating the connections of the powered and unpowered cells, design the proper controls so that all cells safely track the desired affine transformation. The functionality of the proposed ATUGV is validated through hardware experimentation and simulation.
Paper Structure (19 sections, 1 theorem, 25 equations, 12 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 19 sections, 1 theorem, 25 equations, 12 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Contributions
  4. Outline
  5. ATUGV Structure and Components
  6. ATUGV Reference Configuration
  7. Cell Interconnection Mechanism
  8. Connection between Mobile Robot and Powwered Cell
  9. ATUGV Motion Planning and Control
  10. Affine Deformation Constraints
  11. Affine Transformation Tracking by Powered Cells
  12. Affine Transformation Tracking by Unpowered Cells
  13. Results
  14. Experimental Results
  15. Hardware Setup
  16. ...and 4 more sections

Key Result

Theorem 1

Let $d_{min}$ denote the minimum sepration distance between every two cells in the reference configuration, and $r$ denote the same radius of every ATUGV cell. Then, assigns a lower bound for the principal strains of the affine transformations.

Figures (12)

  • Figure 1: An example ATUGV with three powered cells and one unpowered cell.
  • Figure 2: (a) A seven-cell ATUGV with cells identified by $\mathcal{V}=\left\{1,\cdots,7\right\}$. (a) The cell interconnections defined by a neural network.
  • Figure 3: The mechanisms used for connecting $i\in \mathcal{V}$ to $j\in \mathcal{N}_i$.
  • Figure 4: Connection between a mobile mobot and the powered cell through a bar that can freely slide along the inner rail of the enclosing cell.
  • Figure 5: An example ATUGV with three powered cells and one unpowered cell.
  • ...and 7 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (2)

  • Theorem 1
  • proof