LQG-Obstacles: Feedback Control with Collision Avoidance for Mobile Robots under Uncertainty

Jur van den Berg, David Wilkie, Stephen J. Guy, Marc Niethammer, and Dinesh Manocha

Abstract

This paper presents LQG-Obstacles, a new concept that combines linear- quadratic feedback control of mobile robots with guaranteed avoidance of collisions with obstacles. Our approach generalizes the concept of Velocity Obstacles (Fiorini & Shiller 98) to any robotic system with a linear Gaussian dynamics model. We integrate a Kalman filter for state estimation and an LQR feedback controller into a closed-loop dynamics model of which a higher-level control objective is the “control input”. We then define the LQG-Obstacle as the set of control objectives that result in a collision with high probability. Selecting a control objective outside the LQG-Obstacle then produces collision-free motion. We demonstrate the potential of LQG-Obstacles by safely and smoothly navigating a simulated quadrotor helicopter with complex non-linear dynamics and motion and sensing uncertainty through three-dimensional environments with obstacles and narrow passages.

Videos

S-Maze

Simulated Quadrotor navigates an simple S-shaped maze using LQG-Obstacle. A simple guiding path is given consisting of four straight lines through the center of the corridor.

Video: [WMV (0.9 MB)] [YouTube]

3 Window

Simulated Quadrotor navigates an simple S-shaped maze using LQG-Obstacles. A simple guiding path is given consisting of several short, straight segments thorough the center of each window.

Video: [WMV (1.3 MB)] [YouTube]