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| 2. |
- Alhashimi, Anas, et al.
(författare)
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An Improvement in the Observation Model for Monte Carlo Localization
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics. - : SciTePress. - 9789897580406 ; , s. 498-505
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Accurate and robust mobile robot localization is very important in many robot applications. Monte Carlo localization (MCL) is one of the robust probabilistic solutions to robot localization problems. The sensor model used in MCL directly influence the accuracy and robustness of the pose estimation process. The classical beam models assumes independent noise in each individual measurement beam at the same scan. In practice, the noise in adjacent beams maybe largely correlated. This will result in peaks in the likelihood measurement function. These peaks leads to incorrect particles distribution in the MCL. In this research, an adaptive sub-sampling of the measurements is proposed to reduce the peaks in the likelihood function. The sampling is based on the complete scan analysis. The specified measurement is accepted or not based on the relative distance to other points in the 2D point cloud. The proposed technique has been implemented in ROS and stage simulator. The result shows that selecting suitable value of distance between accepted scans can improve the localization error and reduce the required computations effectively.
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| 3. |
- Alhashimi, Anas, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Bayesian strategies for calibrating heteroskedastic static sensors with unknown model structures
- 2018
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Ingår i: 2018 European Control Conference (ECC). - Piscataway, NJ : IEEE. - 9783952426982 - 9781538653036 ; , s. 2447-2453
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper investigates the problem of calibrating sensors affected by (i) heteroskedastic measurement noise and (ii) a polynomial bias, describing a systematic distortion of the measured quantity. First, a set of increasingly complex statistical models for the measurement process was proposed. Then, for each model the authors design a Bayesian parameters estimation method handling heteroskedasticity and capable to exploit prior information about the model parameters. The Bayesian problem is solved using MCMC methods and reconstructing the unknown parameters posterior in sampled form. The authors then test the proposed techniques on a practically relevant case study, the calibration of Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) sensor, and evaluate the different proposed procedures using both artificial and field data.
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| 4. |
- Alhashimi, Anas, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Calibrating distance sensors for terrestrial applications without groundtruth information
- 2017
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Ingår i: IEEE Sensors Journal. - : IEEE. - 1530-437X .- 1558-1748. ; 17:12, s. 3698-3709
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper describes a new calibration procedure for distance sensors that does not require independent sources of groundtruth information, i.e., that is not based on comparing the measurements from the uncalibrated sensor against measurements from a precise device assumed as the groundtruth. Alternatively, the procedure assumes that the uncalibrated distance sensor moves in space on a straight line in an environment with fixed targets, so that the intrinsic parameters of the statistical model of the sensor readings are calibrated without requiring tests in controlled environments, but rather in environments where the sensor follows linear movement and objects do not move. The proposed calibration procedure exploits an approximated expectation maximization scheme on top of two ingredients: an heteroscedastic statistical model describing the measurement process, and a simplified dynamical model describing the linear sensor movement. The procedure is designed to be capable of not just estimating the parameters of one generic distance sensor, but rather integrating the most common sensors in robotic applications, such as Lidars, odometers, and sonar rangers and learn the intrinsic parameters of all these sensors simultaneously. Tests in a controlled environment led to a reduction of the mean squared error of the measurements returned by a commercial triangulation Lidar by a factor between 3 and 6, comparable to the efficiency of other state-of-the art groundtruth-based calibration procedures. Adding odometric and ultrasonic information further improved the performance index of the overall distance estimation strategy by a factor of up to 1.2. Tests also show high robustness against violating the linear movements assumption.
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| 5. |
- Alhashimi, Anas, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Joint Temperature-Lasing Mode Compensation for Time-of-Flight LiDAR Sensors
- 2015
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Ingår i: Sensors. - : MDPI. - 1424-8220. ; 15:12, s. 31205-31223
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We propose an expectation maximization (EM) strategy for improving the precision of time of flight (ToF) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanners. The novel algorithm statistically accounts not only for the bias induced by temperature changes in the laser diode, but also for the multi-modality of the measurement noises that is induced by mode-hopping effects. Instrumental to the proposed EM algorithm, we also describe a general thermal dynamics model that can be learned either from just input-output data or from a combination of simple temperature experiments and information from the laser’s datasheet. We test the strategy on a SICK LMS 200 device and improve its average absolute error by a factor of three.
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| 6. |
- Alhashimi, Anas, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling and Calibrating Triangulation Lidars for Indoor Applications
- 2018
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Ingår i: Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319550107 - 9783319550114 ; , s. 342-366
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present an improved statistical model of the measurement process of triangulation Light Detection and Rangings (Lidars) that takes into account bias and variance effects coming from two different sources of uncertainty: (i) mechanical imperfections on the geometry and properties of their pinhole lens - CCD camera systems, and (ii) inaccuracies in the measurement of the angular displacement of the sensor due to non ideal measurements from the internal encoder of the sensor. This model extends thus the one presented in [2] by adding this second source of errors. Besides proposing the statistical model, this chapter considers: (i) specialized and dedicated model calibration algorithms that exploit Maximum Likelihood (ML)/Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) concepts and that use training datasets collected in a controlled setup, and (ii) tailored statistical strategies that use the calibration results to statistically process the raw sensor measurements in non controlled but structured environments where there is a high chance for the sensor to be detecting objects with flat surfaces (e.g., walls). These newly proposed algorithms are thus specially designed and optimized for inferring precisely the angular orientation of the Lidar sensor with respect to the detected object, a feature that is beneficial especially for indoor navigation purposes.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Alhashimi, Anas, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Statistical modeling and calibration of triangulation Lidars
- 2016
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Ingår i: ICINCO 2016. - : SciTePress. - 9789897581984 ; , s. 308-317
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- We aim at developing statistical tools that improve the accuracy and precision of the measurements returned by triangulation Light Detection and Rangings (Lidars). To this aim we: i) propose and validate a novel model that describes the statistics of the measurements of these Lidars, and that is built starting from mechanical considerations on the geometry and properties of their pinhole lens - CCD camera systems; ii) build, starting from this novel statistical model, a Maximum Likelihood (ML) / Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) -based sensor calibration algorithm that exploits training information collected in a controlled environment; iii) develop ML and Least Squares (LS) strategies that use the calibration results to statistically process the raw sensor measurements in non controlled environments. The overall technique allowed us to obtain empirical improvements of the normalized Mean Squared Error (MSE) from 0.0789 to 0.0046
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| 9. |
- Alhashimi, Anas, 1978-
(författare)
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Statistical Sensor Calibration Algorithms
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The use of sensors is ubiquitous in our IT-based society; smartphones, consumer electronics, wearable devices, healthcare systems, industries, and autonomous cars, to name but a few, rely on quantitative measurements for their operations. Measurements require sensors, but sensor readings are corrupted not only by noise but also, in almost all cases, by deviations resulting from the fact that the characteristics of the sensors typically deviate from their ideal characteristics.This thesis presents a set of methodologies to solve the problem of calibrating sensors with statistical estimation algorithms. The methods generally start with an initial statistical sensor modeling phase in which the main objective is to propose meaningful models that are capable of simultaneously explaining recorded evidence and the physical principle for the operation of the sensor. The proposed calibration methods then typically use training datasets to find point estimates of the parameters of these models and to select their structure (particularlyin terms of the model order) using suitable criteria borrowed from the system identification literature. Subsequently, the proposed methods suggest how to process the newly arriving measurements through opportune filtering algorithms that leverage the previously learned models to improve the accuracy and/or precision of the sensor readings.This thesis thus presents a set of statistical sensor models and their corresponding model learning strategies, and it specifically discusses two cases: the first case is when we have a complete training dataset (where “complete” refers to having some ground-truth informationin the training set); the second case is where the training set should be considered incomplete (i.e., not containing information that should be considered ground truth, which implies requiring other sources of information to be used for the calibration process). In doing so, we consider a set of statistical models consisting of both the case where the variance of the measurement error is fixed (i.e., homoskedastic models) and the case where the variance changes with the measured quantity (i.e., heteroskedastic models). We further analyzethe possibility of learning the models using closed-form expressions (for example, when statistically meaningful, Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Weighted Least Squares (WLS) estimation schemes) and the possibility of using numerical techniques such as Expectation Maximization (EM) or Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods (when closed-form solutions are not available or problematic from an implementation perspective). We finally discuss the problem formulation using classical (frequentist) and Bayesian frameworks, and we present several field examples where the proposed calibration techniques are applied on sensors typically used in robotics applications (specifically, triangulation Light Detection and Rangings (Lidars) and Time of Flight (ToF) Lidars).
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| 10. |
- Andersson, Ulf, et al.
(författare)
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Estimation of side-slip angles of a Volvo A25E articulated all-wheel drive hauler based on GPS/INS measurements
- 2011
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Ingår i: Proceedings of SAE 2011 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress and Exhibition. - 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA, United States : Society of Automotive Engineers, Incorporated.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Traction control for off-road vehicles such as articulated all-wheel drive haulers is of great importance to improve the vehicle performance. A well-known method to reduce the slip and thereby improve the traction is to engage differential locks in the driveline of the vehicle. The drawbacks of differential locks engaged are for instance increased wear, increased fuel consumption but also reduced turnability of the vehicle. Therefore, the differentials should be locked only when necessary, ideally only when slip occurs or is about to occur. A number of methods to detect slip has been reported in the literature. Some of them utilize dynamical models of the vehicle where side-slip angles are important inputs. This paper describes an off-line estimator for the side-slip angles of an articulated vehicle based on measurements from Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Navigation System (INS). The current implementation is a proof of concept and the intention is to develop a system that can be used as a reference for on-line estimators. By comparing measurements from two GPS/INS units, mounted on the front and rear part of the vehicle, it is possible to estimate the side-slip angles of both the front and rear part. The method has been tested on a Volvo A25E articulated all-wheel drive hauler equipped with two high precision GPS/INS units (NovAtel's SPAN-CPT). Tests have been performed when driving on asphalt, gravel and snow. The results from the tests are discussed.
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