The deployment of robotic systems in real world environments requires the ability to quickly produce paths through cluttered, non-convex spaces. These planned trajectories must be both kinematically feasible (i.e., collision free) and dynamically feasible (i.e., satisfy the underlying system dynamics), necessitating a consideration of both the free space and the dynamics of the robot in the path planning phase. In this work, we explore the application of reachable Bezier polytopes as an efficient tool for generating trajectories satisfying both kinematic and dynamic requirements. Furthermore, we demonstrate that by offloading specific computation tasks to the GPU, such an algorithm can meet tight real time requirements. We propose a layered control architecture that efficiently produces collision free and dynamically feasible paths for nonlinear control systems, and demonstrate the framework on the tasks of 3D hopping in a cluttered environment.

We introduce MecQaBot, an open-source, affordable, and modular autonomous mobile robotics framework developed for education and research at Macquarie University, School of Engineering, since 2019. This platform aims to provide students and researchers with an accessible means for exploring autonomous robotics and fostering hands-on learning and innovation. Over the five years, the platform has engaged more than 240 undergraduate and postgraduate students across various engineering disciplines. The framework addresses the growing need for practical robotics training in response to the expanding robotics field and its increasing relevance in industry and academia. The platform facilitates teaching critical concepts in sensing, programming, hardware-software integration, and autonomy within real-world contexts, igniting student interest and engagement. We describe the design and evolution of the MecQaBot framework and the underlying principles of scalability and flexibility, which are keys to its success. Complete documentation: https://github.com/AliceJames-1/MecQaBot

The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in modern transport systems has made energy-aware routing a critical task in their successful integration, especially within large-scale networks. In cases where an EV's remaining energy is limited and charging locations are not easily accessible, some destinations may only be reachable through an energy-optimal path: a route that consumes less energy than all other alternatives. The feasibility of such energy-efficient paths depends heavily on the accuracy of the energy model used for planning, and thus failing to account for vehicle dynamics can lead to inaccurate energy estimates, rendering some planned routes infeasible in reality. This paper explores the impact of vehicle dynamics on energy-optimal path planning for EVs. We develop an accurate energy model that incorporates key vehicle dynamics parameters into energy calculations, thereby reducing the risk of planning infeasible paths under battery constraints. The paper also introduces two novel online reweighting functions that allow for a faster, pre-processing free, pathfinding in the presence of negative energy costs resulting from regenerative braking, making them ideal for real-time applications. Through extensive experimentation on real-world transport networks, we demonstrate that our approach considerably enhances energy-optimal pathfinding for EVs in both computational efficiency and energy estimation accuracy.

This work describes the process of integrating a depth camera into the navigation system of a self-driving ground vehicle (SDV) and the implementation of a multilayer costmap that enhances the vehicle's obstacle identification process by expanding its two-dimensional field of view, based on 2D LIDAR, to a three-dimensional perception system using an RGB-D camera. This approach lays the foundation for a robust vision-based navigation and obstacle detection system. A theoretical review is presented and implementation results are discussed for future work.

We consider the setting where a robot must complete a sequence of tasks in a persistent large-scale environment, given one at a time. Existing task planners often operate myopically, focusing solely on immediate goals without considering the impact of current actions on future tasks. Anticipatory planning, which reduces the joint objective of the immediate planning cost of the current task and the expected cost associated with future subsequent tasks, offers an approach for improving long-lived task planning. However, applying anticipatory planning in large-scale environments presents significant challenges due to the sheer number of assets involved, which strains the scalability of learning and planning. In this research, we introduce a model-based anticipatory task planning framework designed to scale to large-scale realistic environments. Our framework uses a GNN in particular via a representation inspired by a 3D Scene Graph to learn the essential properties of the environment crucial to estimating the state's expected cost and a sampling-based procedure for practical large-scale anticipatory planning. Our experimental results show that our planner reduces the cost of task sequence by 5.38% in home and 31.5% in restaurant settings. If given time to prepare in advance using our model reduces task sequence costs by 40.6% and 42.5%, respectively.

--Efficient path optimization for drones in search and rescue operations faces challenges, including limited visibility, time constraints, and complex information gathering in urban environments. We present a comprehensive approach to optimize UA V-based search and rescue operations in neighborhood areas, utilizing both a 3D AirSim-ROS2 simulator and a 2D simulator . The path planning problem is formulated as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), and we propose a novel "Shrinking POMCP" approach to address time constraints. In the AirSim environment, we integrate our approach with a probabilistic world model for belief maintenance and a neu-rosymbolic navigator for obstacle avoidance. The 2D simulator employs surrogate ROS2 nodes with equivalent functionality. We compare trajectories generated by different approaches in the 2D simulator and evaluate performance across various belief types in the 3D AirSim-ROS simulator . Experimental results from both simulators demonstrate that our proposed shrinking POMCP solution achieves significant improvements in search times compared to alternative methods, showcasing its potential for enhancing the efficiency of UA V-assisted search and rescue operations. Search and rescue (SAR) operations are critical, time-sensitive missions conducted in challenging environments like neighborhoods, wilderness [1], or maritime settings [2]. These resource-intensive operations require efficient path planning and optimal routing [3]. In recent years, Unmanned Aerial V ehicles (UA Vs) have become valuable SAR assets, offering advantages such as rapid deployment, extended flight times, and access to hard-to-reach areas. Equipped with sensors and cameras, UA Vs can detect heat signatures, identify objects, and provide real-time aerial imagery to search teams [4]. However, the use of UA Vs in SAR operations presents unique challenges, particularly in path planning and decision-making under uncertainty. Factors such as limited battery life, changing weather conditions, and incomplete information about the search area complicate the task of efficiently coordinating UA V movements to maximize the probability of locating targets [3].

Autonomous systems, including robots and drones, face significant challenges when navigating through dynamic environments, particularly within urban settings where obstacles, fluctuating traffic, and pedestrian activity are constantly shifting. Although, traditional motion planning algorithms like the wavefront planner and gradient descent planner, which use potential functions, work well in static environments, they fall short in situations where the environment is continuously changing. This work proposes a dynamic, real-time path planning approach specifically designed for autonomous systems, allowing them to effectively avoid static and dynamic obstacles, thereby enhancing their overall adaptability. The approach integrates the efficiency of conventional planners with the ability to make rapid adjustments in response to moving obstacles and environmental changes. The simulation results discussed in this article demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, demonstrating its suitability for robotic path planning in both known and unknown environments, including those involving mobile objects, agents, or potential threats.

We present a hierarchical framework to solve robot planning as an input control problem. At the lowest level are temporary closed control loops, ("tasks"), each representing a behaviour, contingent on a specific sensory input and therefore temporary. At the highest level, a supervising "Configurator" directs task creation and termination. Here resides "core" knowledge as a physics engine, where sequences of tasks can be simulated. The Configurator encodes and interprets simulation results, based on which it can choose a sequence of tasks as a plan. We implement this framework on a real robot and test it in an overtaking scenario as proof-of-concept.

Retrieving target objects from unknown, confined spaces remains a challenging task that requires integrated, task-driven active sensing and rearrangement planning. Previous approaches have independently addressed active sensing and rearrangement planning, limiting their practicality in real-world scenarios. This paper presents a new, integrated heuristic-based active sensing and Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS)-based retrieval planning approach. These components provide feedback to one another to actively sense critical, unobserved areas suitable for the retrieval planner to plan a sequence for relocating path-blocking obstacles and a collision-free trajectory for retrieving the target object. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using a robot arm equipped with an in-hand camera in both simulated and real-world confined, cluttered scenarios. Our framework is compared against various state-of-the-art methods. The results indicate that our proposed approach outperforms baseline methods by a significant margin in terms of the success rate, the object rearrangement planning time consumption and the number of planning trials before successfully retrieving the target. Videos can be found at https://youtu.be/tea7I-3RtV0.

Target-directed agents utilize self-generated targets, to guide their behaviors for better generalization. These agents are prone to blindly chasing problematic targets, resulting in worse generalization and safety catastrophes. We show that these behaviors can be results of delusions, stemming from improper designs around training: the agent may naturally come to hold false beliefs about certain targets. We identify delusions via intuitive examples in controlled environments, and investigate their causes and mitigations. With the insights, we demonstrate how we can make agents address delusions preemptively and autonomously. We validate empirically the effectiveness of the proposed strategies in correcting delusional behaviors and improving out-of-distribution generalization.