Background
At the research center
IFOR at Umeå
University,
techniques
for automation and control
of
vehicles in off-rad terrain
are
developed. Examples are unamanned vechicles capable
of following a specific path and avoid obstacles recognized from
sensor data, or intelligent controll of crane arm and gripper.
Experiments are conducted on real off-road vehicles, wheeled
robots and crane installation and in collaboration with
manufacturers of vehicles, e.g.,
Komatsu Forest and
BAE Systems Hägglunds.
The thesis project is a prestudy for how to develop and
utilize a virtual environment
(VE)
in development of technologies for intelligent off-road
vehicles, e.g.,
as a component in the
technological solution or as a tool for
evaluation of
strategies
for implementing intelligence in the vehicle. The VE may also be
applied to exploring
new vehicle designs and driver interfaces. The project may be
run in collaboration with Umeå Institute of Design and vehicle
manufacturers in the IFOR network.
Scope
Develop real-time
simulation of a concept vehicle demonstrating capabilities from
IFOR (Intelligenta
Fordon Off-Road), e.g., autonomous navigation of unmanned vehicles
in an
off-road environment,
intelligent motion of crane arm and gripper, etc. The simulator is
developed from the simulation software
Colosseum3D and complemented with new code modules, e.g., for
vehicle intelligence,
simulation
of sensor data, ground-vehicle interaction, driver interaction
interface.
Focus may be on:
-
Simulation based route planning – determine the best path for
the vehicle to follow
-
Machine learning – develop a simulation module for testing and
evaluating different ways to learn the vehicle various tasks,
.e.g., to cut a tree.
-
Interaction
interface for the
machine
operator to an
intelligent and/or remotely controlled vehicle
Previous
experience
Student
should have good knowledge from the field visual interactive
simulation
and software engineering.
Contact
For further information, a full specification and references,
contact Martin
Servin
(Department of physics). |
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