A Problem of the Software Implementation of the Execution Level Control Actions of a Heavy Autonomous Mobile Robot

Abstract

Heavy vehicles are an important class of the multi-purpose mobile ground vehicles. According to an expert opinion, development of the heavy mobile robots (mobots) based on HTVs will boost the efficiency of different purpose HTVs. It should be underlined that most of the domestic and foreign mobot solutions are usually based on a remote control, when a specially trained expert uses a cable or wireless liaison to control a mobot's spatial motion and other functionalities from a control station. Thus, the individual control method, in which certain functions of a Control station operator can be delegated to the onboard control system, is nowadays of huge interest worldwide. For this reason, within a mobot, besides the remote control modes, the individual control modes can be implemented, which are carried out by the onboard control system only, without any direct involvement of a control station operator. That means formalization of the expert knowledge acquired by human crew members in the form of a set of time diagrams of the operating members' configuration. There are many works dedicated to development of the executive level control actions of small and medium autonomous mobots. However, the achieved results are almost inapplicable for development of the executive level controls for the heavy autonomous mobots. To a great extent this is due to the fact that there are many uncertainties concerning the movement process of the mobots of the aforesaid class. Such uncertainties include imperfect dynamics model of the mobot, complexity of interaction between the robot's running gear and the movement surface, etc. This article is dedicated to the software of the mobot execution level control actions in the standalone mode. Employment of the methods of the situation control and formalization of the expert knowledge made it possible to implement the software for the execution level control actions in the form of a set of coherent time diagrams showing variation of the operating members' configuration in the conditions of uncertainties.