Content area

Abstract

Autonomous wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) are widely used in safety-critical systems, such as robotic visual infrastructure inspection, warehouse automation, delivery robots, and autonomous vehicles, where it is essential for WMRs to reliably follow predetermined paths while effectively maintaining lane position and avoiding collisions. However, frequent observations required for control execution to account for environmental uncertainty result in increased sensing, computation, and energy costs. This research addresses the problem of optimal, safe trajectory tracking control for WMRs by developing a safe reinforcement learning (RL)-based trajectory tracking control framework integrated with event-based sensing and computation. The first part of the research reviews the state-of-the-art approaches for safe, resource-aware, and optimal control frameworks for WMRs in uncertain environments. It primarily focuses on defining the rationale for selecting the control barrier function (CBF) as the safety certificate in the trajectory tracking control algorithm, and the event-triggered control (ETC) that can reduce sensing and computation costs. Subsequently, a near-optimal event-based sampling and optimal tracking control scheme under input constraints for WMRs is developed by extending an existing event-based RL-based control. Numerical simulation results indicate a 61.2% reduction in computation and sensing. Finally, the event-based optimal trajectory tracking control is extended to incorporate safety by reformulating the cost function using CBF and validated through MATLAB-based numerical simulations in a lane-keeping scenario with safety constraints.

Details

1010268
Business indexing term
Title
Safe Reinforcement Learning for Trajectory Tracking of Mobile Robots With Minimal Intermittent Observations
Number of pages
88
Publication year
2025
Degree date
2025
School code
0278
Source
MAI 87/1(E), Masters Abstracts International
ISBN
9798288882074
Committee member
Fahimi, Farbod; Nguyen, Dinh
University/institution
The University of Alabama in Huntsville
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University location
United States -- Alabama
Degree
M.S.Eng.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
32119870
ProQuest document ID
3233871962
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/safe-reinforcement-learning-trajectory-tracking/docview/3233871962/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Database
ProQuest One Academic