Ph.D.

Dissertation in the autonomous exploration of confined and subterranean spaces

Terrain-Aware Autonomous Exploration of Unstructured Confined Spaces

Abstract

This thesis project addresses the problem of exploring confined environments autonomously using terrestrial mobile robots. Here we propose a methodology for path planning in rough three-dimensional terrains and two exploration techniques that use the map's navigable areas, the related navigation cost, and the information expected from a frontier to select the next exploration sector. The presented pipelines are built over a representation of the environment based on three-dimensional meshes and raw point clouds. The reconstructed meshes are converted into traversable graphs, and the dangerous or untraversable regions are filtered considering the expected pose of the robot at the time of planning. The generation of the most promising paths uses a linear combination of weights applied to multiple traversability metrics of the terrain, such as distance, roughness, and energy consumption of the robot. The proposed exploration method uses the expected volumetric information of frontiers after visitation; this way, the exploration areas are selected according to their expected utility and visit cost, considering the terrain's topography. We also propose an online planning phase using the raw point cloud to avoid obstacles in dynamic environments. The online phase is faster to compute and uses an RRT algorithm biased towards the most informative frontier, which is capable of planning and selecting a target frontier without specifying a hardcoded utility metric. The algorithms were validated in representative simulated and real environments, proving the viability of the proposed methodologies.

Downloads

 Ph.D. dissertation PDF document

 Github source code (ROS1, C++ and Python)

Defense Information

  • Advisors:
    • Douglas G. Macharet (advisor)
    • Mario F. M. Campos (co-advisor)
  • Defense date:
    • 08/07/2022
  • Comittee:
    • Prof. Luiz Chaimowicz (DCC/UFMG)
    • Prof. Gustavo Medeiros Freitas (DEE/UFMG)
    • Prof. Gustavo Pessin (MI/ITV)
    • Prof. Denis Fernando Wolf (ICMC/USP)

Videos

 
 

Thesis Related Publications

  1. Journal: Rob
    A Survey on the Autonomous Exploration of Confined Subterranean Spaces: Perspectives from Real-word and Industrial Robotic Deployments
    Azpúrua, Héctor, M. Freitas, Gustavo, Clark, Lillian, Agha-mohammadi, Ali-akbar,  Pessin, Gustavo and 2 more authors
    Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems 2022

    (Under revision)

  2. Journal: JINT
    Towards semi-autonomous robotic inspection and mapping in confined spaces with the espeleorobô
    Héctor, Azpúrua, Adriano, Rezende, Guilherme, Potje, Cruz, Júnior Gilmar Pereira,  Fernandes, Rafael and 9 more authors
    Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems 2021
  1. Conf: ICRA
    Three-dimensional terrain aware autonomous exploration for subterranean and confined spaces
    Azpúrua, Héctor, Campos, Mario FM,  and Macharet, Douglas G
    In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2021
  1. Workshop: RSS
    Research Statement: Towards Terrain-Aware Autonomous Exploration in 3D Confined Spaces
    Azpúrua, Héctor, Campos, Mario FM,  and Macharet, Douglas G
    In Robotics: Science and Systems 2021 (RSS) 2021

    (Presented in RSS 2021 Pioneers Workshop)

Other Associated Publications

  1. Journal: Field Robotics
    An Addendum to NeBula: Towards Extending TEAM CoSTAR’s Solution to Larger Scale Environments
    Agha, Ali, Otsu, Kyohei, Morrell, Benjamin, Fan, David D.,  Kim, Sung-Kyun and 84 more authors
    Journal of Field Robotics 2022

    (Under revision)

  2. Journal: T-ASE
    EKF-LOAM: An Adaptive Fusion of LiDAR SLAM With Wheel Odometry and Inertial Data for Confined Spaces With Few Geometric Features
    Júnior, Gilmar P Cruz, Rezende, Adriano MC, Miranda, Victor RF, Fernandes, Rafael,  Azpúrua, Héctor and 3 more authors
    IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 2022
  1. Conf: LARS
    Towards a Simple Navigation Strategy for Autonomous Inspection of Ducts and Galleries
    Pereira, Guilherme, Duarte, Carolina, Marques, David,  Azpúrua, Héctor,  Pessin, Gustavo and 1 more author
    In 2021 Latin American Robotics Symposium (LARS), 2021 Brazilian Symposium on Robotics (SBR), and 2021 Workshop on Robotics in Education (WRE) 2021
  2. Conf: SBAI (Brazil)
    Exploração autônoma de ambientes planares utilizando um dispositivo robótico móvel
    Leao, Lucca, Amaral, Israel,  Azpúrua, Héctor, Rezende, Adriano,  Pessin, Gustavo and 1 more author
    In Simpósio Brasileiro de Automação Inteligente-SBAI 2021
  3. Conf: SBAI (Brazil)
    Análise e Comparação dos Algoritmos RRT* e Dijkstra para Planejamento de Caminhos em Terrenos Acidentados
    Viana, Douglas, Amaral, Israel, Rezende, Adriano,  Azpúrua, Héctor,  Pessin, Gustavo and 1 more author
    In Simpósio Brasileiro de Automação Inteligente-SBAI 2021
  4. Conf: CASE
    Indoor localization and navigation control strategies for a mobile robot designed to inspect confined environments
    Rezende, Adriano MC, Júnior, Gilmar PC, Fernandes, Rafael, Miranda, Victor RF,  Azpúrua, Héctor and 2 more authors
    In 2020 IEEE 16th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) 2020
  5. Conf: LARS
    Investigation of Visual Reconstruction Techniques Using Mobile Robots in Confined Environments
    Fernandes, Rafael, Rocha, Thiago Lages,  Azpúrua, Héctor, Pessin, Gustavo,  Neto, Armando Alves and 1 more author
    In 2020 Latin American Robotics Symposium (LARS), 2020 Brazilian Symposium on Robotics (SBR) and 2020 Workshop on Robotics in Education (WRE) 2020
  6. Conf: LARS
    A simulated environment for the development and validation of an inspection robot for confined spaces
    Cid, André, Nazário, Mateus, Sathler, Mauricio, Martins, Frederico,  Domingues, Jaco and 6 more authors
    In 2020 Latin American Robotics Symposium (LARS), 2020 Brazilian Symposium on Robotics (SBR) and 2020 Workshop on Robotics in Education (WRE) 2020
  7. Conf: CBA (Brazil)
    Sistema de alertas e operação assistida de um robô para a inspeção de ambientes confinados-espeleorobô
    Amaral, Israel, Fany, Carolina, Simon, David, Matos, Lucas,  Araújo, Álvaro and 5 more authors
    In Congresso Brasileiro de Automática CBA 2020
  8. Conf: CBA (Brazil)
    Investigação de técnicas lidar slam para um dispositivo robótico de inspeção de ambientes confinados
    Cruz Júnior, Gilmar Pereira, Carmo Matos, Lucas Vinicius,  Azpúrua, Héctor, Pessin, Gustavo,  Freitas, Gustavo Medeiros and 1 more author
    In Congresso Brasileiro de Automática-CBA 2020
  9. Conf: SBAI (Brazil)
    Planejamento de caminhos para robôs móveis em ambientes acidentados
    Santos, Alexandre Souza,  Azpúrua, Héctor, Pessin, Gustavo,  and Freitas, Gustavo Medeiros
    SBAI 2019 2019
  10. Conf: SBAI (Brazil)
    Análise e Comparaçao de Mobilidade de um Robô com Locomoçao Reconfigurável
    Rocha, Filipe,  Azpúrua, Héctor, Garcia, Gabriel, Cota, Eduardo,  Costa, Ramon R and 1 more author
    SBAI 2019 2019
  11. Conf: ICAR
    EspeleoRobô-a robotic device to inspect confined environments
    Azpurua, Hector, Rocha, Filipe, Garcia, Gabriel, Santos, Alexandre Souza,  Cota, Eduardo and 4 more authors
    In 2019 19th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR) 2019
  12. Conf: CBA (Brazil)
    Avaliaçao de técnicas de odometria aplicadas a um dispositivo robótico móvel
    COTA, EDUARDO, ROCHA, FILIPE AUGUSTO SANTOS, AZPÚRUA, HÉCTOR,  and FREITAS, GUSTAVO MEDEIROS
    In Congresso Brasileiro de Automática-CBA 2019
  13. Conf: LARS
    Path planning for mobile robots on rough terrain
    Santos, Alexandre S, Azpúrua, Héctor Ignacio Perez, Pessin, Gustavo,  and Freitas, Gustavo M
    In 2018 Latin American Robotic Symposium, 2018 Brazilian Symposium on Robotics (SBR) and 2018 Workshop on Robotics in Education (WRE) 2018