BUP12 - Rekonom

(Re)configuration and decentralized coordination of autonomous vehicles.

The animal kingdom shows the way: Ants transport heavy loads together in a goal-directed manner. Following the example of ants, driverless transport vehicles, adapted to the size of a load, are to transport loads in a decentrally coordinated manner as a network.

A model (Omni-Curve-Parameters OCP) was developed to control a vehicle with any number of steered wheels. This allows a clear specification of motor speeds and steering angles even in the case of an over-determined system (vehicle with many wheels).

Since many vehicles connected by a heavy load behave like one vehicle with the same amunt of wheels, the preliminary work in this project can be excellently applied and further elaborated. Vehicles with steered and non-steered wheels will be considered for a connected drive.

Aim and approach

The extension of the omni-curve parameter model to non-steered and steered wheels has already been done.
In further steps, a universal model for the arbitrary composite of chassis configurations is to be developed. For this purpose, studies on the reference point of the vehicles and the path specification of the chassis composite will be developed.
By means of a simulation of the different coupled vehicles, the limits of the model will be worked out.
With two vehicles available at the institute, the coordination of the autonomous vehicles can be verified in practice.