To increase the science return of future missions toMars and to enable sample return missions, the accuracy with which a lander can be delivered to the Martian surface must be improved by orders of magnitude. The prior work developed a convex-optimization-based minimum-fuel powered-descent guidance algorithm. In this paper, this convex-optimization-based approach is extended to handle the casew...

we design a two-stage scheme to consider trajectory planning problem of two mobile manipulators for cooperative transportation of a rigid body in presence of static obstacles. within the first stage, regarding the static obstacles we develop a method that searches the workspace for the shortest possible path between start and goal configurations by constructing a graph on a portion of the confi...

This paper presents a computationally efficient flight optimization method for improving the fuel economy of a fixed-wing aircraft following a landing path during the descent and approach phases. The problem is converted to an optimal control problemwith one energy state variable, subject to state and control input constraints along the path. It is shown that the solution to the energy-optimal ...

This paper treats the practical and challenging control problem of tracking a prescribed continuous trajectory for an autonomous vehicle in the presence of gravity, buoyancy, fluid dynamic and other forces and moments that are uncertain. These uncertain forces and moments are bounded and may be difficult to model accurately, but they act persistently or over long periods of time. The trajectory...

This paper proposes a non-model based approach to iterative learning control (ILC) via extremumseeking. Single-input–single-output discrete-time nonlinear systems are considered, where the objective is to recursively construct an input such that the corresponding system output tracks a prescribed reference trajectory as closely as possible on finite horizon. The problem is formulated in terms o...

This paper describes a computationally inexpensive, yet high performance trajectory generation algorithm for omnidirectional vehicles. It is shown that the associated nonlinear control problem can be made tractable by restricting the set of admissible control functions. The resulting problem is linear with coupled control efforts and a near-optimal control strategy is shown to be piecewise cons...

In order for a vehicle to follow a predetermined trajectory accurately, its position must be estimated accurately and reliably. In this paper, we propose new lateral control methods for unmanned vehicles and a positioning system using ultrasonic waves. The positioning problem is considered as an important issue of control problem for unmanned navigation of a vehicle. Dead Reckoning is widely us...

This paper presents two innovative units linked together to build the main frame of a UAV Mission Management System. The first unit is a Path Planner for small UAVs able to generate optimal paths in a tridimensional environment, generating flyable and safe paths with the lowest computational effort. The second unit is the Flight Management System based on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control, tha...

Flexible needle insertion for percutaneous therapies is formulated in this paper as a trajectory planning problem of a linear beam, supported by virtual springs. Using this simplified model, the forward and inverse kinematics of the needle is solved analytically, providing a way for simulation and path planning in real-time. Using the inverse kinematics, the required needle basis trajectory can...