RiskRRT-Based Planning For Interception of Moving Objects in Complex Environments

This paper presents a new automatic image segmentation method for segmenting moving object in complex environment by combining the motion information with edge information. We propose an adaptive optical flow method based on the Horn-Schunck algorithm to estimate the optical flow field. Our method puts different smoothness constraints on different directions and optical flow constraint is used according to the gradient magnitude. Canny edge detector can obtain the most edge information but miss some pixels. In order to restore these missing pixels the edge has a growing based on the continuity of optical flow field. Next, by remaining the block that has the longest edge could delete the noise in the background, and then the last segmentation result is obtained. The experimental result demonstrates that this method can segment the moving object in complex environment precisely.

We propose a method for imaging small-scale diffraction objects in complex environments in which Kirchhoff-based approaches may fail. The proposed method is based on a separation between the specular reflection and diffraction components of the total wavefield in the migrated surface angle domain. Reverse-time migration was utilized to produce the common image gathers. This approach provides stable and robust results in cases of complex velocity models. The separation is based on the fact that, in surface angle common image gathers, reflection events are focused at positions that correspond to the apparent dip angle of the reflectors, whereas diffracted events are distributed over a wide range of angles. The high-resolution radon-based procedure is used to efficiently separate the reflection and diffraction wavefields. In this study, we consider poststack diffraction imaging. The advantages of working in the poststack domain are its numerical efficiency and the reduced computational time. The numerical results show that the proposed method is able to image diffraction objects in complex environments. The application of the method to a real seismic dataset illustrates the capability of the approach to extract diffractions.

A Personal Robot should be able to handle unknown objects in unknown environments. For a manipulation task the question what to do with an object once it had been grasped is one of the most essential ones beside the grasping task itself. Moreover, the planning time should be at least as fast as the time the robot needs for its motions. We propose a fast placement planner for sensor-modelled objects in complex environments. The planner computes a stable position and orientation for the object in the environment. The algorithm uses only geometric information, most notably no force or torque sensor is required. In particular, we introduce a novel approach regarding the pose computation. By means of experiments with various household objects the robustness and performance are validated. Further on, we compare our approach with a pose computation using a physics simulation framework.

COLREGs-abiding hybrid collision avoidance algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning for USVs

Background: With the development of robotics, more and more robots are being used in industrial production. However, as the production environment surrounding the robots becomes increasingly complex, there is a need for more intelligent industrial robots. For improving the intelligence of industrial robots, the most important thing is to ensure that they can carry out safe industrial production activities in a complex production environment. Therefore, studying the autonomous dynamic obstacle avoidance path planning of industrial robots in complex environments is of great significance for improving the intelligence of industrial robots and the application of human-machine collaboration. Objective: The main purpose of this paper is to improve the traditional artificial potential field method. It aims to improve the disadvantages of the traditional artificial potential field method, such as falling into the local minimum and failing to reach the target. Secondly, the background difference method, which is based on binocular vision and Kalman filtering algorithm, is used, and the environmental map containing the static and dynamic obstacles is obtained. After obtaining the information on the position of static and dynamic obstacles, the robot arm can make good use of the improved artificial potential field method to plan its own trajectory, thus realizing the dynamic obstacle avoidance of the robot arm in a complex environment. Methods: This paper proposes an improved artificial potential field method. First of all, in order to solve the problem of not being able to achieve the goal, the method of modifying the repulsion field function, as proposed by Wang Huili and others, has been cited. In the traditional repulsion function, the relative distance between the robot and the target is introduced. Due to this, the target point is always the minimum point of the potential field. It is necessary to ensure that the robot can reach the target position smoothly. For the local minimum problem, by adding a gravitational increase factor β, the gravitational force received is greater than the repulsive force, thereby breaking the balance of the resultant force. Finally, for the traditional artificial potential field method that does not consider the path planning problem in the presence of dynamic obstacles, the velocity vector of the dynamic obstacle is brought into the potential field function to improve the traditional artificial potential field method. Results: The robot easily falls into the local optimum during path planning, and the improved artificial potential field method overcomes this shortcoming. Therefore, the manipulator can perform autonomous dynamic obstacle avoidance path planning in an environment with dynamic obstacles, finally reaching the target point safely. Conclusions: The industrial production field faces an increasing demand for intelligent industrial robots. This paper improves on the traditional artificial potential field method based on binocular vision so that the mechanical arm can avoid dynamic obstacles autonomously in the presence of dynamic obstacles, thereby improving the degree of intelligence of the robotic arm, enabling the technology to meet the needs of future industrial development and contribute to the development of future industrial robot technology.

This study focuses on developing advanced methods for the identification and classification of objects in complex environments. Over the past two years, there has been an increase in the use of advanced technologies in various challenging scenarios. This research is centered on accurately identifying targets and tracking them. The study addresses challenges related to object detection in multi-dimensional and intricate settings, taking into account natural conditions like rain and fog, as well as technical limitations such as camera capabilities. Special emphasis is placed on data collection for training the identification model, followed by extensive data preprocessing, including cleaning, labeling, and augmentation. The research employs YOLO and Deep Sport machine learning algorithms, focusing on improving the accuracy and reliability of target recognition and increasing data processing speed to minimize misidentification risks. The integration of YOLO, known for its quick real-time object detection, with Deep Sport, which excels in detailed feature extraction and classification, forms the basis of our methodology. This fusion is a complex combination of both models' strengths, with YOLO quickly identifying relevant objects and Deep Sport performing an in-depth analysis. The experimental phase involves extensive testing of the models in varied weather conditions and settings to evaluate performance under challenging circumstances. This work aims to enhance object identification techniques in complex environments, a critical aspect for the effectiveness of various advanced operations. The findings are expected to significantly contribute to the field by enabling quicker and more accurate target identification.

With a focus on complex environments, the present paper describes a new algorithm in rigid and non-rigid object tracking through color feature. Object tracking in these environments is taken into consideration as real-time applications, such as manufacturing, surveillance and monitoring, smart rooms, and so on, where partial or full occlusion sensibly occurs. As is obvious, the best color-based object tracking algorithm is now known, as the mean shift (MS) iterative procedure, to find the location of an object in image sequences. The algorithm performance is not unfortunately acceptable once objects in complex environments need to be tracked. In fact, the main aim of the present research is to improve the MS tracking algorithm, by proposing an improved convex kernel function, which is now realized in association with the Kalman filter approach (KFA). In the algorithm proposed here, the KFA is employed to solve the full occlusion problems since the speed for the objects is constant. Subsequently, the present investigated robust kernel function has been designed to dominate the low saturation and partial occlusion problems.

In the current methods of point cloud processing, there are still several limitations, particularly in achieving high precision and accuracy for large objects in complex environments. Existing techniques often struggle with incomplete or noisy data, leading to inaccurate contour extraction. In view of the challenges associated with the sparse and discrete nature of point clouds in complex environments, which lead to poor accuracy and stability in object contour extraction, this paper proposes a novel method for accurately extracting the contours of three-dimensional target point clouds. The method integrates high-resolution images with sparse point cloud information to address these issues. Firstly, the local characteristics of the point cloud are calculated, allowing for the selection of a contour point cloud. Next, depth information from two-dimensional images is obtained through a fuzzy mapping relationship. Finally, constraint conditions are established to derive a more accurate predicted value of the contour point cloud. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method effectively improves the precision and accuracy of contour extraction for large objects, reducing measurement deviation by approximately 64.9% compared to using the original point cloud alone. Additionally, the method shows a more accurate completion effect on parts of the contour that are missing, underscoring its robustness and effectiveness in challenging scenarios.

An object pick-and-place system with a camera, a six-degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot manipulator, and a two-finger gripper is implemented based on the robot operating system (ROS) in this paper. A collision-free path planning method is one of the most fundamental problems that has to be solved before the robot manipulator can autonomously pick-and-place objects in complex environments. In the implementation of the real-time pick-and-place system, the success rate and computing time of path planning by a six-DOF robot manipulator are two essential key factors. Therefore, an improved rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm, named changing strategy RRT (CS-RRT), is proposed. Based on the method of gradually changing the sampling area based on RRT (CSA-RRT), two mechanisms are used in the proposed CS-RRT to improve the success rate and computing time. The proposed CS-RRT algorithm adopts a sampling-radius limitation mechanism, which enables the random tree to approach the goal area more efficiently each time the environment is explored. It can avoid spending a lot of time looking for valid points when it is close to the goal point, thus reducing the computing time of the improved RRT algorithm. In addition, the CS-RRT algorithm adopts a node counting mechanism, which enables the algorithm to switch to an appropriate sampling method in complex environments. It can avoid the search path being trapped in some constrained areas due to excessive exploration in the direction of the goal point, thus improving the adaptability of the proposed algorithm to various environments and increasing the success rate. Finally, an environment with four object pick-and-place tasks is established, and four simulation results are given to illustrate that the proposed CS-RRT-based collision-free path planning method has the best performance compared with the other two RRT algorithms. A practical experiment is also provided to verify that the robot manipulator can indeed complete the specified four object pick-and-place tasks successfully and effectively.

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is one of the fundamental functionalities for intelligent mobile robots. Over the last few decades, numerous impressive SLAM systems have been developed, demonstrating commendable performance in specific scenarios. However, some challenges still remain unsolved, such as how to handle moving objects in complex environments and how to enable robots to gain a true understanding of their surroundings and perform advanced tasks. This paper proposes a visual SLAM system, YOLOv7-SLAM, designed for complex environments with strong robustness. YOLOv7-SLAM employs a multi-threaded approach with five parallel threads: tracking, semantic segmentation, local mapping, loop closure, and dense semantic mapping creation. YOLOv7-SLAM employs the YOLO object detection method to remove obstacles in complex scenes, reducing the impact of obstacles in the environment and significantly enhancing localization accuracy in complex environments. We conducted experiments using the TUM RGB-D dataset. The results show that YOLOv7-SLAM achieves an order of magnitude improvement in absolute trajectory accuracy compared to ORB-SLAM2, making it one of the most advanced SLAM systems for complex environments. Our experiments were validated using the TUM RGB-D dataset. The results showcase a notable enhancement in the absolute trajectory accuracy of YOLOv7-SLAM in comparison to ORB-SLAM2 [1]. It performs well in complex obstacle-rich environments.

Learning object manipulation is a critical skill for robots to interact with their environment. Even though there has been significant progress in robotic manipulation of rigid objects, interacting with non-rigid objects remains challenging for robots. In this work, we introduce velcro peeling as a new application for robotic manipulation of non-rigid objects in complex environments. We present a method of learning force-based manipulation from noisy and incomplete sensor inputs in partially observable environments by modeling long term dependencies between measurements with a multi-step deep recurrent network. We present experiments on a real robot to show the necessity of modeling these long term dependencies and validate our approach in simulation and robot experiments. Our results show that using tactile input enables the robot to overcome geometric uncertainties present in the environment with high fidelity in ∼ 90% of all cases, outperforming the baselines by a large margin.

Obstacle avoidance for mobile robot to reach the desired target from a start location is one of the most interesting research topics. However, until now, few works discuss about working of mobile robot in the dynamic and continuously changing environment. So, this issue is still the research challenge for mobile robots. Traditional algorithm for obstacle avoidance in the dynamic, complex environment had many drawbacks. As known that Q-learning, the type of reinforcement learning, has been successfully applied in computer games. However, it is still rarely used in real world applications. This research presents an effectively method for real time dynamic obstacle avoidance based on Q-learning in the real world by using three-wheeled mobile robot. The position of obstacles including many static and dynamic obstacles and the mobile robot are recognized by fixed camera installed above the working space. The input for the robot is the 2D data from the camera. The output is an action for the robot (velocities, linear and angular parameters). Firstly, the simulation is performed for Q-learning algorithm then based on trained data, The Q-table value is implemented to the real mobile robot to perform the task in the real scene. The results are compared with intelligent control method for both static and dynamic obstacles cases. Through implement experiments, the results show that, after training in dynamic environments and testing in a new environment, the mobile robot is able to reach the target position successfully and have better performance comparing with fuzzy controller.

To address limited feature representation, insufficient cross-scale fusion, and localization inaccuracies in complex scenes, we propose DTS-YOLO, a lightweight single-stage detector. It improves detection through dynamic fea-ture aggregation, fine-grained texture encoding, and precise bounding box regression. Specifically, the Dynamic Route Enhanced Aggregation Module DREAM integrates multi-branch depthwise convolutions and lightweight Transformers to enrich multi-scale representations. To mitigate semantic in-consistency in fusion, Dynamic Cross-scale Feature Fusion DCFF com-bines Scale-aware Channel Attention Fusion SCAF and Intra-layer Feature Fusion Attention IFFA for enhanced semantic alignment. Additionally, edge and texture perception is reinforced via Sobel and Laplacian Pyramid modules. For robust localization, a novel Closed Complete IoU CCIoU loss introduces morphological closure operations to refine bounding box align-ment under occlusion. Experiments on VisDrone2019 and DOTA-v1.5 HBB demonstrate consistent performance gains over baseline YOLO11, especially for small and dense objects in complex environments.

To reduce environmental pollution caused by improper waste disposal, efficient waste management solutions are essential. Traditional methods rely on manual monitoring, which is time-consuming and ineffective. Advancements in artificial intelligence and deep learning enable automated waste detection and localization, improving efficiency in waste management. Faster R-CNN, an advanced object detection model, enhances precision in recognizing and localizing waste in visual data. By utilizing deep learning techniques, waste detection achieves high accuracy, reducing dependence on manual inspections.The integration of Faster R-CNN with image processing techniques allows for real-time identification of waste objects in complex environments. Localization is achieved by drawing bounding boxes around detected waste, providing precise positional information. The Region Proposal Network (RPN) plays a key role in this process by generating candidate object regions through anchor boxes and refining them based on object scores. Tensor Flow’s Object Detection API facilitates model training and optimization, ensuring accurate recognition of waste materials. High-performance convolutional neural networks enhance feature extraction, distinguishing waste from non-waste objects effectively. The use of deep learning in image-based waste detection supports scalable waste management solutions.Automated waste detection and localization contribute to sustainable urban development by enabling proactive waste management strategies. The ability to accurately identify and mark waste locations enhances the efficiency of cleaning processes and reduces environmental hazards. By analyzing waste distribution patterns, authorities can optimize resource allocation and improve waste disposal planning. The adoption of AI-driven approaches in waste detection minimizes human effort while promoting a cleaner and healthier environment. Key Words: AI-Driven waste detection, Faster R-CNN, Region Proposal Network, TensorFlow object detection API, Image processing and Localization.

The railway perimeter is a key area for ensuring railway operational safety, and the intrusion of foreign objects seriously threatens the railway traffic safety. Considering the false and missed detections caused by the small size objects and the intricate background, this study proposed a detection approach called BCD-YOLO, based on YOLOv8. First, an enhanced dynamic sparse attention module was developed. It captures fine-grained details in the feature map and strengthens image context correlation, while reducing computational complexity. Second, the enhanced feature fusion module (CARAFE) was improved and T-CARAFE was constructed to replace the nearest neighbor linear interpolation method in YOLOv8, reducing the problem of feature loss during upsampling to improve the model’s capability of detecting small targets and feature catching capability. Finally, the DeepSORT object tracking algorithm was combined, which considered its trajectory and dwell time to determine whether an alarm is required, filtering out the effects of irrelevant objects in complex environments, and reducing the false alarm rate. The tracking ability of DeepSORT was further improved by introducing a shift window (Swin Transformer). In the experiment, the dataset defined a railway perimeter to simulate the actual railway perimeter environment, and only intruding objects within this perimeter were excluded. The results show that BCD-YOLO, compared with the original YOLOv8, has a precision improvement of 5.22%, recall rate improvement of 1.62%,mAP@0.5 improvement of 2.35%, and 105.5 frames per second. Combined with DeepSORT, the false detection rate is reduced by 16%, which satisfies the requirements of both accuracy and speed in railway object detection and effectively improves the problem of false and missed detections of small objects. Therefore, BCD-YOLO shows strong potential for deployment in intelligent railway monitoring systems, improving detection accuracy and reliability in complex environments while enhancing public safety by reducing intrusion-related risks.