A system for determining and executing an autonomous-vehicle vehicle travel route, including a hardware-based processing unit and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The storage medium includes an input-interface module that, when executed by the hardware-based processing unit, obtains factor data indicating factors relevant to determining a vehicle travel route. The storage medium also includes a route-generation module comprising a route-complexity sub-module. The route-complexity sub-module determines, based on the factor data, route-complexity indexes corresponding to respective optional routes. The route-generation module determines the vehicle travel route based on the route-complexity indexes. The storage in various embodiments includes other sub-modules associated with other elements, such as autonomous-driving safety, comfort, stress, pollution, scenery, or infrastructure-accessibility, for determining and executing an autonomous-driving travel route. In some embodiments, the storage includes an autonomous-driving perceptions module and an autonomous-driving control module for modifying vehicle functions in executing the autonomous-driving travel route.

The present disclosure provides a mobile robot. The mobile robot includes a body, a pair of spin mops rotatably mounted to the body, a mop motor configured to provide a driving force to the pair of spin mops, an optical flow sensor configured to obtain bottom-view image information using light at a regular time interval, and a controller configured to determine whether the material of the floor is a troublesome material based on the bottom-view image information sensed by the optical flow sensor and to control, upon determining that the material of the floor is a troublesome material, the mop motor to perform an entry restriction operation.

A sailing assisting system is provided in which a sailing assist for a vessel which enters a specific water area where sailing of the vessel is limited is realized through a simple configuration and in which a steersman is prevented from having strange feeling. A sailing assisting system includes movable controlling devices (a shift and throttle controller, a steering device, a trim switch), actuators (a rotational shaft drive unit, a shaft drive unit, a switch drive unit) for driving these controlling devices, and a control unit for executing a notification operation and controlling the actuators to limit movable ranges of the controlling devices if a hull is determined to stay within a specific water area where the sailing of the hull is limited based on information on the specific water area and information on the position of the hull.

An attitude control apparatus for a satellite includes: at least three electric motors, wherein the at least three electric motors are arranged in such a way that a torque may be generated with any orientation of an associated torque vector, and a controller, wherein the controller is configured to drive the at least three electric motors based on a torque controller. The torque controller is adapted to operate the at least three electric motors outside a rest state only when an acceleration torque and a braking torque are required to execute an agile attitude change maneuver. There is also described an associated method.

A process and machine configured to predict and preempt an undesired load and/or bending moment on a part of a vehicle resulting from an exogenous or a control input. The machine may include a predictor with an algorithm for converting parameters from a state sensed upwind from the part into an estimated normal load on the part and a prediction, for a future time, of a normal load scaled for a weight of the aerospace vehicle. The machine may: produce, using a state upwind from the part on the aerospace vehicle and/or a maneuver input, a predicted state, load and bending moment on the part at a time in the future; derive a command preempting the part from experiencing the predicted load and bending moment; and actuate the command just prior to the part experiencing the predicted state, thereby alleviating the part from experiencing the predicted load and bending moment.

According to various aspects, a method of generating a collision free path of travel may include defining a global search area encompassing at least a global start position and a global target position; and determining a set of collision free trajectories by iteration, the set of collision free trajectories connecting the global start position to the global target position via one or more local target positions, each iteration including: determining a local search area within the global search area; determining, from the global obstacle map, a local obstacle map associated with the local search area; defining a local start position and one or more local target positions within the local search area; and calculating, in the local search area, a collision free trajectory from the local start position to the one or more local target positions considering the local obstacle map.

A drive unit of a robotic vehicle including a top surface having a mounting interface to interchangeably couple with multiple different modular payload structures configured to transport items in a facility, workspace or inventory management environment. The mounting interface is configured to securely engage with a mounting portion of the variety of different payload structures to enable a versatile exchange of the payload structure for different conveyance applications. The drive unit includes an electrical interface to communicatively couple with the modular payload structures. The drive unit is configured to use data communicated via the electrical coupling and interface to identify a type of modular payload structure that is mechanically coupled to the mounting interface and implement a motion profile (e.g., speed and acceleration parameters) associated with the identified modular payload structure.

A process and machine configured to predict and preempt an undesired load and/or bending moment on a part of a vehicle resulting from an exogenous or a control input. The machine may include a predictor with an algorithm for converting parameters from a state sensed upwind from the part into an estimated normal load on the part and a prediction, for a future time, of a normal load scaled for a weight of the aerospace vehicle. The machine may: produce, using a state upwind from the part on the aerospace vehicle and/or a maneuver input, a predicted state, load and bending moment on the part at a time in the future; derive a command preempting the part from experiencing the predicted load and bending moment; and actuate the command just prior to the part experiencing the predicted state, thereby alleviating the part from experiencing the predicted load and bending moment.

A method of operating an under-actuated actuator system including a plurality of actuators (3), preferably for operating a multiactuator aerial vehicle (1), wherein the actuators (3) are individual propulsion units of the multiactuator aerial vehicle (1), each actuator having a maximum physical capacity u.sup.max, the method including: controlling the actuators (3) by with an actual control input u∈.sup.k computed from an allocation equation u=D.sup.−1u.sub.p, wherein D.sup.−1 is an inverse allocation matrix and u.sub.p∈.sup.m is a pseudo control input defined by a system dynamics equation m(x){umlaut over (x)}+c(x,{dot over (x)})+g(x)+G(x)u.sub.p=f.sub.ext, wherein x∈n is an n-dimensional configuration vector of the system, m(x)∈.sup.n×n is a state dependent generalized moment of inertia, c(x,{dot over (x)})∈.sup.n are state dependent Coriolis force, g(x)∈.sup.n are gravitational forces and f.sub.ext∈.sup.n are external forces and torques, and G(x)∈.sup.n×m is a control input matrix which contains the information of under-actuation. The system is under-actuated if Rank

A vehicle control system is provided to maintain an SOC level of the battery during autonomous operation of the vehicle. The control system is applied to a vehicle that can be operated autonomously by controlling an engine, a motor, a steering system, a brake system etc. autonomously by a controller, and the vehicle is allowed to coast by manipulating a clutch. During autonomous operation of the vehicle, a first coasting mode in which the engine is stopped and the clutch is disengaged is selected if the SOC level is higher than a threshold level, and a second coasting mode in which the engine is activated and the clutch is disengaged is selected if the SOC level is lower than the threshold level.