Mapping and motion planning for safe autonomous navigation

In real-world robotics, motion planning remains to be an open challenge. Not only robotic systems are required to move through unexplored environments, but also their maneuverability is constrained by their dynamics and often suffer from uncertainty.

In this project, we seek to overcome this problem through incrementally mapping the surroundings while, simultaneously, planning a safe and feasible path to a desired goal. This is especially critical in environments, where autonomous vehicles must deal with both motion and environment uncertainties. In order to cope with these constraints, this project investigates an uncertainty-based framework for mapping and planning feasible motions online with safety guarantees. The resulting algorithms will be evaluated on autonomous underwater vehicles and small unmanned aerial vehicles. If successful, this project can enable many applications such as autonomous drone delivery, autonomous planetary exploration, search and rescue, and underwater explorations.

If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to Qi Heng Ho at qi.ho@colorado.edu or checkout some of our recent related publications.

2024

1. Q. H. Ho et al., “Recursively-Constrained Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes,” in Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), Barcelona, Spain, 2024.

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2. Q. H. Ho, M. S. Feather, F. Rossi, Z. N. Sunberg, and M. Lahijanian, “Sound Heuristic Search Value Iteration for Undiscounted POMDPs with Reachability Objectives,” in Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI), Barcelona, Spain, 2024.

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2023

1. Q. H. Ho, Z. N. Sunberg, and M. Lahijanian, “Sampling-based Reactive Synthesis for Nondeterministic Hybrid Systems,” Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), Dec. 2023. (accepted)

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   • DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2023.3340029
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2. Q. H. Ho, Z. N. Sunberg, and M. Lahijanian, “Planning with SiMBA: Motion Planning under Uncertainty for Temporal Goals using Simplified Belief Guides,” in International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, England, UK, 2023, pp. 5723–5729.

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   • DOI: 10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160897

3. R. B. Ilyes, Q. H. Ho, and M. Lahijanian, “Stochastic Robustness Interval for Motion Planning with Signal Temporal Logic,” in International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, England, UK, 2023, pp. 5716–5722.

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   • DOI: 10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161409

2022

1. Q. H. Ho, R. B. Ilyes, Z. Sunberg, and M. Lahijanian, “Automaton-Guided Control Synthesis for Signal Temporal Logic Specifications,” in IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Cancun, Mexico, 2022.

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2. Q. H. Ho, Z. Sunberg, and M. Lahijanian, “Gaussian Belief Trees for Chance Constrained Asymptotically Optimal Motion Planning,” in International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2022.

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   • Video

2021

1. È. Pairet, J. D. Hernández, M. Carreras, Y. Petillot, and M. Lahijanian, “Online Mapping and Motion Planning under Uncertainty for Probabilistically Safe Autonomous Navigation,” IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 2021.

   • DOI: 10.1109/TASE.2021.3118737

2018

1. È. Pairet, J. D. Hernández, M. Lahijanian, and M. Carreras, “Uncertainty-based online mapping and motion planning for marine robotics guidance,” in Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2018, pp. 2367–2374.

   • DOI: 10.1109/IROS.2018.8593394