A Stochastic Control Strategy for Safely Driving a Powered Wheelchair⁎This work is funded by the project INTERREG VA FMA ADAPT - "Assistive Devices for empowering disAbled People through robotic Technologies" http://adapt-project.com/index.php. The FMA Program is a European Territorial Cooperation program which aims to finance ambitious cooperation projects in the border region between France and England. The Program is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). Issue 2 (2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Teodorescu, Catalin Stefan; Zhang, Bingqing; Carlson, Tom
• Is Part Of: IFAC-PapersOnLine. Volume 53:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 10148
• Page End: 10153
• Publication Date: 2020
• Subjects: stochastic dynamic programming -- inventory control -- model-based control -- velocity control -- robot navigation -- robot dynamics -- electric vehicles -- vehicle dynamics; Automatic control -- Periodicals; 629.805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2020.12.2741
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2405-8963

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper we deal with model-based control design in the presence of uncertainties. We use Stochastic Dynamic Programming to solve two problems, called longitudinal and lateral vehicle control. The goal is to allow safe driving (navigation) of a moving vehicle in an environment with static obstacles. We show how to define the optimization problems given the stochastic driver behavior and environment. The vehicle dynamics model is deterministic (obeys physical laws) and is explicitly integrated into the optimization problem. In terms of results, the numerically computed control policies provide best-on-average performance (according to the expected value operator). In simulation, it is shown that the vehicle effectively avoids obstacles, thus ensuring a safe drive experience.