Uab - Ectc 2014 Proceedings - Section 3

SECTION 3
DYNAMIC SYSTEMS & CONTROL
UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13
47
48
Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Early Career Technical Conference

The University of Alabama, Birmingham ECTC 2014
November 1 2, 2014 - Birmingham, Alabama USA
LOW-COST PLATFORM FOR AUTONOMOUS GROUND VEHICLE RESEARCH

Nikhil Ollukaren, Dr. Kevin McFall
Southern Polytechnic State University
Marietta, Georgia, United States of America
ABSTRACT
This research paper investigates what it takes to design an
affordable autonomous ground vehicle platform from the
ground up. Using a handful of readily available parts, a go-kart
sized vehicle was built and made functional for approximately
$400. Using an independent direct drive rear wheel system, the
vehicle can achieve a fixed axis rotation. Using vision
algorithms loaded onto a Raspberry Pi, the robot is able to
detect a red target and send commands to the Arduino. The
Arduino controls the motion logic and allows the vehicle to
follow the target. While the vision logic run on the Raspberry
Pi is not the main focus of this research paper, developing it
was important to make sure the platform built could achieve the
necessary mobility. The vehicle can also be driven manually
using a hand held controller. The vehicle platform was
completed, along with wiring of components, and it achieved
motion on a flat smooth surface. This platform will allow for
expansion of the project into more complex tasks and can be
upgraded as resources allow.
INTRODUCTION
Recent years have seen an explosion of research into
autonomous vehicles [17]. This project aims to design and
build a platform that uses visual data to navigate its
surroundings. Using simple and affordable microcontroller
boards, a vehicle was created that was able to track and follow
a specified moving target using visual algorithms to supply
motion logic. Other research teams have successfully designed
systems that can, using a stationary camera, track specified
shapes and colors. And still others have mounted multisensory
arrays onto automobiles and achieved controlled environment
autonomous travel such as Googles driverless car [8]. As far as
commercial success a few civilian vehicles have driver assistive
features, but no fully autonomous automobile is available to the
consumer. So far a few states have legalized driverless vehicles
on state roads, and others have legislation in the works.
Through this research, technologies can be developed that can
utilize this new market space and radically change the
transportation industry.
This research paper will focus on creating a robust
mechanical platform that will have the capabilities to simulate a
go-kart sized vehicle. It will be designed so that it has a high
degree of maneuverability and space for expansion of the

project as time goes on. Building this platform should also be
very affordable so that it can be repaired economically and also
allow for more individuals the opportunity to explore
autonomous vehicles.
VEHICLE DESIGN
In order to test visual tracking code for the autonomous
vehicle, a physical platform was required to mount the
necessary mechanical and electrical hardware. Other
requirements included a sturdy design, high maneuverability,
proper clearance, and height specifications, which should be
achieved with a build cost as low as possible. Additionally a
control device would allow for manual driving of the vehicle
and would toggle into autonomous mode or kill power to the
driver motors entirely.
Looking into the collection of readily available parts
allowed the initial design of the go-kart to take shape with
old mini-bike tires as the center of the build. By recycling the
tires the cost for the rear assembly would be minimized while
retaining large sturdy rear wheels. Investing early in a pair of
2.5 inch CIM Brushed DC Motors and Talon SR motor
controllers provided sufficient motor power and allowed
implementation of direct drive rear wheels which would run
independently from one another. A single motor directly
connected with a coupling to a wheel is captured in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Motor-Wheel Assembly

Placing 3 inch castor wheels on the front of the vehicle
gave it the ability to rotate on a fixed axis of rotation centered
49
at the back by reversing the direction of the motors as shown in

Figure 2. This gives the vehicle a high degree of
maneuverability in tight spaces while also giving the vehicle
the necessary clearance to get over small objects in its path.
The frame of the go-kart was cut out of plywood, and the
castors were mounted on the front. The front corners of the go
cart were rounded so that the cart would not get caught on
edges. L-brackets were used to secure the motors to the board,
and couplings had to be made to mate an 8 mm shaft with a 2
mm key to a three bolt pattern on the mini bike wheel.
The coupling system took considerably more time than was
originally allotted due to design revisions. In hindsight, less
emphasis should have been put on using the custom mini bike
tires, and a wheel that supported a key shaft should have been
considered. Due to the way that the acrylic pieces used on the
coupling were cut, the rear tires were not balanced properly.
This caused the vehicle to vibrate at higher speeds, and it was
possible for some of the cables to loosen on the breadboard. A
future revision of the couplings will have to be made to correct
the tire balance.
enough that it did not flex and cause problems with image
capture.
Figure 3. Stand with Raspberry Pi Mount
Figure 2. Axis of rotation

The final structure to be implemented was the stand for the
Raspberry Pi camera box, which was to be placed three feet
above the ground to simulate eye level for a typical go-kart
driver. Using a PVC pipe and small L-brackets, the stand was
secured at the front of the vehicle, between the castors. Using a
bike phone mount allows us to quickly attach and detach and
adjust elevation of the camera as seen in Figure 3. Interestingly
this setup was actually quite stable, as the vibration from the
ground that made it up the PVC pipe was damped by the filler
material on the bike mount clamp. The PVC pipe used was firm
The vehicle controller was cut out of plastic using a

Dremel tool, and mounting holes and button spaces were drilled
out and assembled. Potentiometers connected to joysticks were
used to read in the throttle values for each motor. Three toggle
switches were included for different modes such as the kill
switch, autonomous mode and a free toggle for future
functionality. The completed controller can be seen in Figure 4.
The controller is tethered to the vehicle so that the operator can
continuously monitor the vehicle and activate the kill switch
should the machine malfunction.
The controller also has room to add more switches and
possibly an LED screen for feedback from the vehicle. One
specific improvement for the next version of the controller
would be a dead man handle switch which would act as a
secondary kill switch should the vehicle pull the controller out
of the operators hands.
50
Figure 4. Vehicle Controller
The completed platform met all of the design

specifications, starting with being able to emulate the go-kart
dimensions and placing the camera at a view point that would
emulate the divers point of view. The platform needed to be
nimble as well, and this was achieved through the castor and
tank drive system. The final design requirement was to allow
space for the platform to grow. By leaving seven square feet of
plywood space available, the second iteration of sensors will
have more than enough space to be mounted. By recycling
older components into the design, we were able to keep
assembly costs under $400 for the entire build. Figure 5 shows
the completed platform with all of the components wired.
MICROCONTROLLER PROGRAMMING
While versatile and simple to use, microcontrollers like the
Arduino and applications processors like the Raspberry Pi are
limited in their processing speed, especially if parallel
processing threads are required. For this reason, an Arduino
Uno was chosen to send pulse width modulation (PWM)
signals to the motor controllers and the Raspberry Pi for
processing the camera image in order to compartmentalize the
computing tasks. The Pi was chosen for its camera module,
which connects directly to the board with a dedicated camera
port. Both the Pi and camera are protected by placing them in a
commercially available enclosure.
The Pi collects visual information from the camera,
processes it, and sends serial data commands to the Arduino via
USB cable as illustrated in Figure 6. The role of the Arduino is
to read inputs from the controller and Pi, and write appropriate
PWM commands to the motor controllers as described in
Figure 7. The PWM signals to the Talon motor controllers
consist of 1 to 2 ms pulses periodically with a 20 ms period.
Full counter-clockwise motion is achieved with a 1 ms pulse,
where 1.5 ms is neutral and 2 ms full clockwise rotation. The
software limits PWM output between 1.1 and 1.8 ms in order to
operate the tethered vehicle at reasonable speeds.
Figure 5. Completed Vehicle

Powering both the Arduino and Pi with a single battery was
more complicated than anticipated. Most desirable would be to
power the Arduino with a battery and subsequently the Pi via
the USB serial connection; attaching a battery to the vehicle
chassis along with the Arduino is simpler than adding one to the
Pi mounted on a post. Constructing a supply for the Arduino
from a 9 V battery, battery snap, and 2.1 mm power plug is
straightforward, and takes advantage of the built-in voltage
regulator on the Arduino. However, a diode in the Arduino
circuitry [9] allows powering the Arduino via USB but prevents
it from supplying power to USB connected devices. As a
workaround, a USB cable was modified, with its power wire
connected to the 5 V output on the Arduino rather than to the
USB connector. Power was supplied to the Pi, although none of
the USB ports would activate, not even serial communication
across the cable powering it from the Arduino. The final design
places a battery pack with the Pi instead, which powers the
Arduino via a standard USB cable. A Bytech portable battery
charger was used to deliver the requisite 5 V to the Pi, which
has no internal voltage regulator and therefore should not be
powered directly with batteries. The overall system schematic
of how all the components are connected is presented in
Figure 8. The source code for the Python script running on the
Pi and the Arduino sketch appear in Appendix A and B,
respectively.
51
Acquire
image
Process
image
Send value between

0 and 127 to Arduino
Figure 6. Flow chart for Raspberry Pi programming.

Read value
from kill switch
algorithms to offer obstacle avoidance and detection of road

boundaries for steering control. As a proof of concept, the
prototype is programmed to detect and follow a sheet of red
paper. The picamera Python library [10] can acquire images at
30 frames per second (FPS), but the overhead of processing the
image generally reduces the rate to 2-5 FPS [11], [12]. But the
simple code tested using capture_continuous yielded
only approximately 1 FPS, which is sufficient for a prototype
but obviously must be improved upon for a relevant
autonomous vehicle.
The OpenCV computer vision library [13], [14] is used to
encode the raw image input into a useful matrix in order to
create a binary image true for pixels with red components over
68% and with blue and green components under 47%. A nonzero command is sent via USB to the Arduino if the number of
true pixels in the binary image exceeds a particular threshold.
The value sent is proportional to the average horizontal position
of the true pixels with 1 corresponding to the left side, 64 to
middle, and 127 to the right side. Engaging the kill switch on
the controller prevents the vehicle from following spurious red
objects in the background.
Yes
Kill?
Portable
Battery
No
Raspberry Pi
Read value from

mode switch
USB
Controller
Yes
USB
No
Manual?
DO6
Read values from

potentiometers
Arduino
Read value from Pi

between 1 and 128
Talon SR
Write PWM proportional
to potentiometer values
DO9
Yes
Talon SR
12 V
Battery
Value = 1?
No
CIM Motors
Write PWM: value = 2 left

turn, 64 straight, 127 right turn
CIM Motors
Figure 8. System schematic

Figure 7. Flow chart for Arduino programming.
IMAGE PROCESSING
The eventual goal of this project is to equip the
autonomous vehicle with sophisticated image processing
The image acquisition and processing script is run

automatically in the background (using the & tag) during
startup by executing it in the /etc/rc.local file just before the
exit command.
52
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Throughout this build a lot has been learned about the
mechanical structure, electrical hardware and software that go
into creating an autonomous platform. The limitations of the
current design were more apparent as the semester wore on and
will play into how the next iteration will proceed. During
testing we realized that the unbalanced tires created excessive
vibration at even moderate speeds. This led to a few of the
breadboard cables coming loose but this can be corrected by
using a CNC to cut out the couplings which will help balance
out the tires. The steering system from the controller input
functioned however more time will be needed to refine how
smoothly it can navigate since it is currently uneven. Also the
Raspberry Pi was able to see images and direct commands to
the Arduino as to how to move.
The platform that was completed this semester meets all
the design goals at an astonishingly low price considering how
much a kit would have cost to achieve the same functionality.
The added advantage of intimately knowing every inch of the
vehicle will allow the expansion of the system for more tasks
with ease.
More importantly the technology being investigated could
be used in industry to change the way that transportation is
done both commercially and individually. The code created in
this project could be used to create unmanned vehicle caravans
that would only need one driver to lead. As the project evolves
the vision code will assist the vehicle in recognizing lanes and
other marks on the road. This will allow for the vehicle to
autonomously take over command at the operators request in
approved situations. An example of such a situation is dropping
off the occupant and finding a parking spot and self-parking
and returning to the owner when called by car keys or mobile
device. Another situation could be driving the high way portion
on a road trip. This would allow the occupants of the vehicle to
relax and enjoy the areas they are driving through. Undoubtedly
the market and field of autonomous robots has begun to expand
and change rapidly. With the changes in upcoming legislation
and public demand for these vehicles research in this field is
essential to created safe and reliable products.
Vehicle Based on Adaptive-PID, International Journal of

Advanced Robotic Systems, vol. 9, pp. 111, Jul. 2012.
[4] R. Kala and K. Warwick, Motion planning of autonomous
vehicles in a non-autonomous vehicle environment without
speed
lanes,
ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS
OF
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, vol. 26, no. 56, pp. 1588
1601, Jun. 2013.
[5] M. C. Best, Optimisation of high-speed crash avoidance in
autonomous vehicles, International Journal of Vehicle
Autonomous Systems, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 337354, Sep. 2012.
[6] S. Raju, K. Sanjay, T. Sathish, and B. Madhini, Semi
Autonomous Vehicle To Prevent Accident, International
Journal of Technology and Emerging Engineering Research,
vol. 2, no. 5, 2014.
[7] A. Broggi, P. Cerri, M. Felisa, M. C. Laghi, L. Mazzei, and
P. P. Porta, The VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous
Challenge: an extensive test for a platoon of intelligent
vehicles, International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous
Systems, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 147164, Jun. 2012.
[8] G. Erico, How Googles Self-Driving Car Works, IEEE
Spectrum, vol. 18, 2013.
[9] Arduino Uno Rev 3 Schematic. [Online]. Available:
http://arduino.cc/en/uploads/Main/Arduino_Uno_Rev3schematic.pdf. [Accessed: 05-Jul-2014].
[10] Documentation for the picamera. [Online]. Available:
http://picamera.readthedocs.org/en/release-1.0/. [Accessed: 06Jul-2014].
[11] C. Venables, Multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Autonomous Operation in an Industrial Environment using Onboard Image Processing, Capstone thesis project, University of
Western Australia, 2013.
[12] I. Petrov, Raspberry Pi based System for Visual
Detection of Fluid Level, Capstone thesis project, Tallinn
University of Technology, 2014.
[13] K. Pulli, A. Baksheev, K. Kornyakov, and V. Erumihov,
Real-Time Computer Vision with OpenCV, Communications
of the ACM, vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 6169, Jun. 2012.
[14] S. Brahmbhatt, Embedded Computer Vision: Running
OpenCV Programs on the Raspberry Pi, in Practical OpenCV,
Apress, 2013, pp. 201218.
REFERENCES
[1] M. A. Zakaria, H. Zamzuri, R. Mamat, and S. A. Mazlan,
A Path Tracking Algorithm Using Future Prediction Control
with Spike Detection for an Autonomous Vehicle Robot,
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, vol. 10, pp.
19, Aug. 2013.
[2] R. Domnguez, J. Alonso, E. Onieva, and C. Gonzlez, A
transferable belief model applied to LIDAR perception for
autonomous
vehicles,
Integrated
Computer-Aided
Engineering, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 289302, Sep. 2013.
[3] Pan Zhao, Jiajia Chen, Yan Song, Xiang Tao, Tiejuan Xu,
and Tao Mei, Design of a Control System for an Autonomous
53
APPENDIX A RASPBERRY PI PYTHON SCRIPT

import io
import cv2
import numpy as np
from serial import Serial
rowRes = 60
colRes = 80
ser = Serial('/dev/ttyACM0')
with picamera.PiCamera() as camera:
camera.resolution = (colRes, rowRes)
camera.framerate = 30
stream = io.BytesIO()
for foo in camera.capture_continuous
(stream, format='jpeg'):
stream.truncate()
stream.seek(0)
data = np.fromstring
(stream.getvalue(), dtype=np.uint8)
im = cv2.imdecode(data,1)
B = im[:,:,0] // Blue
G = im[:,:,1] // Green
R = im[:,:,2] // Red
ind = (R>175) & (B<120) & (G<120)
x = 0
count = 0
for row in range(0,rowRes):
for col in range(0,colRes)
if(ind[row,col] == True):
x += col
count += 1
x = x/(count+1) // Avoid divide 0
cover=float(count)/rowRes/colRes*100
scale = int(float(x+1)/colrRes*128)
if(cover > 0.2):
ser.write(str(unichr(scale
else:
ser.write(str(unichr(1)))
APPENDIX B ARDUINO SKETCH

#define baseSpeed 200
#define maxSpeed 400
int val = 1;
int newVal, time, buffer;
int right, left;
void setup() {
pinMode(6, OUTPUT); // Left motor
pinMode(9, OUTPUT); // Right motor
pinMode(5, INPUT); // Mode switch
pinMode(4, INPUT); // Kill switch
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
if(digitalRead(4) == LOW) {
if(digitalRead(5) == LOW) {
newVal = 0;
while((buffer=Serial.read())>=0)
newVal = buffer;
if(newVal > 0)
val = newVal;
if(val == 1) {
digitalWrite(6,HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(1500);
digitalWrite(6,LOW);
delayMicroseconds(20000-1500);
} else {
if(val < 64) { // Move left
time = map(val,64,0,
baseSpeed,maxSpeed);
delayMicroseconds(1500baseSpeed);
delayMicroseconds(baseSpeed +
time);
delayMicroseconds(20000
1500 - time);
} else { // Move right
time = map(val, 64, 128, 0,
maxSpeed-baseSpeed);
digitalWrite(9,HIGH
delayMicroseconds(1500-time);
delayMicroseconds(time +
baseSpeed);
delayMicroseconds(20000
1500 - time);
}
}
} else { // Manual mode
left = map(analogRead(1),0,1023,
1500,1500+maxSpeed);
right = map(analogRead(2),0,1023,
1500,1500+maxSpeed);
delayMicroseconds(1500 - left);
delayMicroseconds(left + right);
delayMicroseconds(20000 - 1500
right);
}
}
}
54

LASER SCANNING VIBROMETER FOR REMOTE PROCESS PERFORMANCE

MONITORING OF AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS
Hadi Fekrmandi
David Meiller
Florida International University
Miami, Florida, USA
Ibrahim Nur Tansel

Florida International University
Miami, Florida, USA
Abdullah Alrashidi
University of Miami
Miami, Florida, USA
ABSTRACT
In this study the Surface Response to Excitation method
(SURE) is employed for remote performance monitoring of
manufacturing operations. Basic manufacturing operations
including cutting and drilling are studied and the ability of the
method to evaluate the dimensional accuracy of each process is
investigated.
The SURE method uses piezoelectric elements to monitor
the changes to the condition of structure. One of the piezo
elements excites the high frequency surface guided waves and
the second piezo senses the received waves in another point. In
this study, a laser-scanning vibrometer (LSV) is used to
measure surface vibrations. The advantage of LSV over the
piezo sensor is that the measurements are not limited to a
certain point, and LSV can scan surface vibrations from any
point on the surface of the structure. Each operation was
performed in a certain number of steps and during each step
laser scanning LSV made measurements from the
predetermined scan-points on a grid.
The normalized sums of square differences (NSSDs) of the
frequency spectrums in every step of the operations are
calculated using the SURE algorithm. Results revealed that the
NSSD values increase at each step of operation. Therefore,
dimensional accuracy of the work piece could be related to
NSSD values to monitor the quality of the performance of
process. This behavior was observed not only in scan points
adjacent to the position of operation, but also it was observed to
some extent in all of the scan points. Also the contour map plots
of NSSD values clearly demonstrated the creation and
development of the operation in the correct position.
The proposed method has an advantage over conventional
vision-based process performance monitoring systems. By
choosing the scan points away from the position of operation, it
is possible to monitor the procedure without the need to
interrupt the operation for cleaning the work piece. The
reliability of this technique is examined through observation of
similar results after repeating the experimentation in similar
conditions.
INTRODUCTION
Automation is essential for manufacturing products with
reasonable cost. During automated manufacturing, the quality
of the manufacturing process should be monitored. Many
methods have been developed to evaluate the manufacturing
operation; however, the complexity and the cost of these
systems limit their implementation in industry. The purpose of
this study was to develop a new structural health monitoring
method for condition monitoring of the quality of the
machining operations.
The structural health monitoring (SHM) community has
developed methods for the evaluation of the integrity of
structures, which resulted in improvement of reliability and
decrease in periodical maintenances. More recently, active
structural health monitoring methods have received a lot of
attention. These methods detect structural defects via exciting
the surface of the structure and monitoring its response at
another point. The major trends in the active health monitoring
techniques could be divided into two main categories: the lamb
wave based methods [1,2] or impedance based (EMI) methods
[3,4].
In the surface guided waves (lamb wave) based methods,
structural problems are detected from monitoring the reflections
of high frequency emitted signals. The changes of the
characteristics of the received signals are processed through
time-frequency techniques [ 5]. However, in the electromechanical impedance-based approaches [6], the variation in
the impedance of a piezoelectric element attached to the surface
of the structure is a criterion to detect structural damage.
Experimental studies have shown that the impedance
characteristics of a structure are subjected to considerable
changes when the structure is exposed to defects with different
sizes and types. It has been shown that the impedance-based
methods are more sensitive to loading status of structures
compared to lamb wave based methods [7].
The capabilities of the commercially available automated
manufacturing systems are limited to vision-based systems.
Due to bulkiness of equipment and expensive costs involved in
their processes and some limitations, the commercial
55
implementation of those methods is pending more research and

development. Surface Response to Excitation or the SURE
Method [8], is a structural health monitoring technique that
uses two or more piezoelectric sensors on the parts surface.
One of these sensors excites the part at a certain frequency
range and creates surface waves. These waves propagate on the
surface of the structure. The other piezoelectric element(s)
receive the waves initiated from the first piezo. For large and
remote access to structures, it is not practical to attach
numerous piezoelectric elements in order to get data. For this
reason, a laser vibrometer was used as an alternative noncontact data acquisition sensor to gather data via a pre-defined
set of scanning points on the structure in SHM applications [ 9].
The feasibility of the SURE approach for machining condition
monitoring was shown through detecting the modifications to
the work-piece, including cuts, holes and welding. However,
the reliability of the method was not studied. Also in the past,
the data acquisition was limited to the location of attached
sensors.
In this study, the scanning laser vibrometer (SLV) was used
to evaluate the surface response characteristics at a set of
measurement points using the SURE method. Previously,
researchers have used the laser vibrometers for health
monitoring purposes by evaluating the modal parameters [ 10],
strain energy [ 11] and the lamb waves [ 12] to evaluate the
integrity of structures. The guided lamb wave method was also
successfully implemented via the SLV to detect fatigue cracks.
Bolted joints like gas pipelines and composite structures have
been reported to be monitored using EMI based techniques
compared to guided lamb wave based methods [ 13]. Various
sensors, measured signals and signal processing techniques
have been used for tool condition monitoring [ 14]. Tansel et al.
[ 15] studied the feasibility of surface guided based techniques
for tool condition monitoring. They indicated that the tool wear
could be measured accurately with these methods; however, in
their method, the tool needs to stop in order to be monitored.
Also, surface scratches due to chips could be a resource of
variations in measurements.
The objective of this study is to develop a new machining
condition monitoring method based on the available structural
health monitoring techniques adapted to the application at
automated manufacturing processes. We pursued the
developments in structural health monitoring techniques within
the data acquisition, implementation and signal processing
techniques to accomplish a reliable manufacturing process
monitoring method. Basic metal cutting processes were
considered for this study, including drilling, cutting and
assembling.
or non-contact laser scanning vibrometer. Like the impedance

method, the SURE method calculates the Sum of the Squared
Differences (SSDs) of the magnitude of the transfer function
with respect to a reference measurement. It evaluates the estate
of health of structure versus its reference status by monitoring
these values.
The reference scan is captured before any machining
operation on work piece. Then, after each step of operation,
another scan is captured. Due to the presence of the operation
on the work-piece, its surface response to excitation changes.
To quantify this change, the Normalized Sum of the Squared
Differences (NSSDs) method is used. First, square differences
of scan data versus reference scan is calculated.
SURE METHOD THEORY

Tansel et al. [ 16] developed the surface response to the
excitation (SURE) method. This method requires much simpler
and cheaper experimental setup compared to the EMI method.
The SURE method uses a piezoelectric element to excite the
surface through a certain frequency range, and the surface
response is measured with another piezoelectric element sensor
EXPERIMENTAL TEST SET UP

The specimen that was used in this experimentation was a
2in36in1/16in aluminum beam. An APC piezoelectric
element model D-.750"-2MHz-850 WFB was attached to the
middle of the beam using the LOCTITE Hysol Product E-30CL
epoxy adhesive. The aluminum beam was clamped in both ends
7F
8F
9F
10F
1F
12F
[] = [] [] 2
R and A are the reference and secondary (altered) data

matrices obtained by the spectrum analyzer. The dimension of
these matrices is m rows by n columns. m is the number of scan
points and n depends on the sampling frequency of data
acquisition system. Therefore each data matrices includes the m
number of frequency spectrums, where each of them is
distributed over the n frequencies. Sum of square differences
(SSD) could be calculated from the following equation:
[]1 = []
(2)
The Normalized Squared Differences (NSSDs) are also

obtained by averaging the squared differences values. Dividing
SSD matrix with its average value does this:
13F
=
[]
14F
15F
(1)
[]
(3)
Figure 1 shows the SSD values calculated for spectra of a

scan point on two successive measurements. In the first case on
the left, the spectrum of the point is compared to the reference
value before anything changes in the condition of structure. In
the second case, the spectrum of the point on the grid is
compared to the reference value after a load was applied on the
structure.
The SSD value in Figure 1 was for a single scan point on
the beam. The SURE algorithm calculates the SSD values for
the entire scan region. In our study, the change in condition of
the structure was the cut and drill hole, and we examined the
possibility of using the SURE method to monitor the condition
of the operation and possibly evaluate the state of the progress
of manufacturing operation.
56
within a wood frame. This wood frame and beam were fixed to
the experiment table to avoid any movements during the
operations. This way the scan points remained the same at all
steps of the operation. Figure 3 shows the beam, piezo element
and frame.
surface, the surface guided waves were excited on the beam

surface through the piezo element. The frequency range was
limited to maximum of 40 kHz according to the maximum
sampling ratio of laser vibrometer analogue to digital convertor.
A schematic of experimentation procedure is shown in the
figure 3.
Figure 1 The change of squares of the differences

(SSDs) in drilling operation.
Figure 3 schematic of experimentation process
Figure 2 aluminum beam with a piezoelectric attached in

the middle of it and fixed within the wood frame
In this study, a laser scanning Doppler vibrometer (LSV),
model Polytech PSV-400, measured the surface vibrations from
a grid of scan points on the aluminum beam. The laser
vibrometer includes the scanning head and control system. The
junction box of the laser vibrometer has a built-in function
generator. During the tests, the function generator constantly
generated sweep sign waves with a maximum amplitude of 5V
within the 20-40 kHz. Due to the electro-mechanical property
of PZT material and the boding between the piezo and beam
As shown in Figure 4, the scan grid includes 42 scan points

that are arranged in 3 rows and 14 columns with the piezo
element at the middle. The scan points were evenly distributed
on both sides of the piezo and the scan points on the piezo were
disabled. Size of scan area is 1.5in21in. Scan grid includes
two local operation regions where the manufacturing operations
were performed. Region 1 (R1) was used for cutting and region
2 (R2) was used for drilling. Scan points were marked on the
work piece in order to make sure that at every step scans were
exactly were captured from the same points.
At the first step of experimentation, a cutting operation was
performed on at region 1 which is 3in left of the beam center.
The depths of cut were 0.125 in, 0.250 in and 0.375 in
respectively. The second operation was drilling at region 2,
which was performed at 6 steps. Table 1 shows the diameter of
drill cutter that was used to create the hole on the aluminum
beam at every step:
The PSV software of laser is capable of calculating the
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of measured time data. The entire
scan was captured in a single data file and exported for the post
processing purpose. In our study, MATLAB was used to
program and implement the SURE algorithm. The NSSD
values were calculated for all scan points for each step of
operation. Contour map graphs of NSSD values were plotted to
visualize the behavior of NSSDs and relate them to the
manufacturing operation being studied.
57
Figure 4. 314 scan grid with 42 scan points; Region 1

for cutting (R1) and Region 2 (R2) for drilling
The interesting phenomenon about the obtained results is

that although the maximum changes in NSSD values are around
the cutting edge, other areas of the beam also demonstrate
changes in NSSD values to some extent. There is a yellow and
orange area on the left of the hot spot in figure 5, while the
right of the cutting edge is mostly blue. This means the NSSD
values have undergone more changes in the left hand-side of
the cutting edge than the right-hand-side. This phenomenon
makes sense knowing that the piezoelectric is located at the
center of the beam and the cutting region R1 that is located on
the left side of the piezo actuator. The piezo element excited the
surface waves and they traveled from center to left of the beam.
Once the cutting process was performed, the presence of the
cutting edge on the path of surface waves caused change in
their propagation characteristics to the rest of the beam. This
fact was reflected in the NSSD values, and they increased to
some extent in the orange and yellow area of the Figure 5.
During the experiments, the NSSDs values of every scan
point was increased after every step of the cutting process. This
phenomenon is shown at the Figure 6 for a scan point in the red
area close to the cutting operation.
Table 1: Drill hole diameters at during a 6 step drilling

process
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
.09375 .1093 .125 .1562 .1875 .21875 0.1875 0.250
RESULTS
Figure 5 shows the contour map of normalized squared
differences for the cutting process. The red region of the
contour map graph clearly identifies the cutting process on the
upper edge of aluminum beam in the correct location.
Figure 6 Normalized sum of squared differences
(NSSDs) of scan point [2,6] at during the cutting
operation
The NSSD values showed similar pattern even in the scan
points that were not adjacent to the cutting edge. Authors
believe this phenomenon could be used to monitor the
performance of the cutting operation in automated
manufacturing systems.
Figure 7 shows an example of the NSSDs on the left of the
cut edge within the yellow-orange area of figure 5.
Figure 5 The cutting process on the aluminum beam and

the corresponding contour map of normalized sum of
squared differences (NSSDs)
Figure 7 Normalized sum of squared differences (NSSDs)

of scan point [1,3] at during the cutting operation
58
Due to the observation of Figure 6, the NSSD values could

be collected away from where the process is happening for the
purpose of the process performance monitoring. The
importance of this point is that in industrial manufacturing the
area close to the cutting process usually is covered with chips
and cooling agent and could not be used for the data acquisition
purpose. Even in the vision-based systems cleaning and
removing the work-piece is the biggest challenge for
commercial application.
The drilling process was performed through 8 steps on the
region R2 on the beam. Figure 8 shows how the NSSD values
successfully identify the correct location of the drill hole. The
red area shows that the maximum values of NSSDs are
occurred at adjacent to the drill hole. There is also a yellow area
on the right side of the red spot. The presence of this area
shows that the wave propagation characteristics are changed
after waves travel through the drill hole area.
Figure 9 Normalized sum of squared differences (NSSDs)

of scan point [2.11] at during the drilling operation
In order to reduce the size and cost of the proposed
method, an embedded electronic device has been developed in
FIUs mechatronics laboratory [17]. A budget estimation of this
device is presented in Table 2:
Table 2: estimate budget for implementation of SuRE
method
Equipment
Alternative Embedded Device
Price
Figure 8 The drilling process on the aluminum beam and

the corresponding contour map of normalized sum of
squared differences (NSSDs)
In figure 9 the NSSD values at each step of drilling process
on a scan point within the red area of figure 8 is shown. A
similar increasing behavior could be observed compared to the
cutting process. The behavior is almost consistent thought the
entire experimentation (other than the step 7) and NSSD values
almost doubled at the last step. Therefore, they could be
correlated to the hole-diameter and be employed in
development of drilling process performance monitoring.
The inconsistency that was observed in the step 7 of the
drilling process was due to the noise in laser vibrometer
measurements. During this study, the scans performed
completely automatically. After each step of operations, the
LSV automatically scanned the entire grid and it switched from
one scan point to another without the any interference.
Although this is much more convenient to perform the scans, it
leaves the vulnerability to presence of noise in the
measurements and could lead to reduced reliability of method.
Function
Generator
Amplifier
Digital Data Synthesizer (DDS60)

Integrated Circuit OPAMP
$65
DAQ system
Integrated Circuit DSP
$6.54
Laser
vibrometer
Total
WFB PZT element
$15
$6.62
$93.16
CONCLUSION
In this study, we developed an automated process
monitoring of manufacturing processes through modification of
an already existing structural health monitoring technique. The
authors believe that once an efficient SHM process is
developed, it could be implemented with minimal expense and
equipment, and it would be possible to inspect several
manufacturing processes. The advantages of such a method are
non - interference with the manufacturing process and
evaluation of tool or product condition with complicated
configuration. Development of a non-contact SHM method for
the automated manufacturing process monitoring and feasibility
of embedded implementation via the SURE based algorithm
will considerably reduce maintenance and operation costs of
tools and quality control of products. Due to simplicity of the
proposed algorithm, the method avoided heavy computational
costs and expensive equipment required in methods like
machine vision based SHM. Due to the non-contact nature of
the laser beam, it was possible to collect data from any point on
the work-piece and locate the best possible points to locate the
piezoelectric elements.
59
The methods implementation in real world automated

manufacturing processes requires considerable more
experimentation, in order to overcome some of the nonaddressed challenges. The piezo location and optimization of
the number of exciters and sensors will be an important topic of
future studies in this work. Since a single work-piece could go
through several different operations during its journey in the
production line, more work is required to develop a method in
order to be able to detect multiple operations from each other
on a single work-piece. Since the method is being developed
from a structural health monitoring background, one of the
most important parameters that will be subjected to study is the
consistency of the monitoring process. The effect of
environmental parameters like temperature and humidity and
the effect of work piece material also need to be clarified. In
this case the laser vibrometer is going to be used as the noncontact sensor, a comprehensive investigation of the effect of
the noise in measurements is necessary.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors acknowledge the FIU Graduate School for
providing support for this research in the form of Dissertation
Year Fellowship. Also, authors gratefully acknowledge Army
Research Office for funding the shared facilities used in this
research at Florida International University (Grant Number
58940-RT-REP). The test pieces were prepared with RichardTodd Zicarellis help at the Engineering Manufacturing Center
(EMC) of the Florida International University. His help has
been greatly appreciated.
REFERENCES
[1] A. Raghavan, and C. E. Cesnik, "Review of guided-wave
structural health monitoring. Shock and Vibration Digest," vol.
39(2), pp. 91-116, 2007.
[2] Su, Z., Ye, L., & Lu, Y. (2006). Guided Lamb waves for
identification of damage in composite structures: A review.
Journal of sound and vibration, 295(3), 753-780.
[3] W. Yan, and W. Q. Chen "Structural health monitoring
using high-frequency electromechanical impedance signatures.
Advances in Civil Engineering," 2010.
[4] V. G. Annamdas, and M. A. Radhika, "Electromechanical
impedance of piezoelectric transducers for monitoring metallic
and non-metallic structures: A review of wired, wireless and
energy-harvesting methods. Journal of Intelligent Material
Systems and Structures," vol. 24(9), pp. 1021-1042, 2013.
[5] Su, Z., Ye, L., & Lu, Y. (2006). Guided Lamb waves for
identification of damage in composite structures: A review.
Journal of sound and vibration, 295(3), 753-780.
[6] Park, G., Sohn, H., Farrar, C. R., & Inman, D. J. (2003).
Overview of piezoelectric impedance-based health monitoring
and path forward. Shock and Vibration Digest, 35(6), 451-464.
[7] I. N. Tansel, J. Rojas, and B. Uragun "Localization of
problems with Surface Response to Excitation Method. In 6th
International Conference on Recent Advances in Space
Technologies-RAST2013," April 2013.
[8] Ibrahim N. Tansel, Benjamin L.Grisso , Gurjiwan Singh ,

Gurjashan Singh, Srikanth Korla , Liming W. Salvino, Health
Monitoring of Aluminum Weldings with the Surface Response
to Excitation (SuRE) Approach, Proceedings of the 8th
International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring 2011.
[9] Hadi Fekrmandi, Javier Rojas, Jason Campbell, Ibrahim
Nur Tansel, Bulent Kaya, Sezai Taskin, Surface Response to
Excitation Method for Structural Health Monitoring of MultiBolt Joints on a Robotic Arm Using a Scanning Laser
Vibrometer, International Journal of Prognostics and Health
Management, 2014, Vol 5.
[10] Farrar, C. R., Hemez, F. M., Shunk, D. D., Stinemates, D.
W., Nadler, B. R., & Czarnecki, J. J. (2004). A review of
structural health monitoring literature: 1996-2001 (p. 303). Los
Alamos,, New Mexico: Los Alamos National Laboratory.
[11] Sharma, V. K. (2009). Laser doppler vibrometer for
efficient structural health monitoring. PhD thesis, Georgia
Institute of Technology, 2008.
[12] Staszewski, W. J., Lee, B. C., Mallet, L., & Scarpa, F.
(2004). Structural health monitoring using scanning laser
vibrometry: I. Lamb wave sensing. Smart Materials and
Structures, 13(2), 251.
[13] D. M. Peairs, G. Park, and D. J. Inman, "Improving
accessibility of the impedance-based structural health
monitoring method. Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and
Structures," vol. 15(2), pp. 129-139, 2004.
[14] Rehorn, Adam G., Jin Jiang, and Peter E. Orban. "State-ofthe-art methods and results in tool condition monitoring: a
review." The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing
Technology 26.7-8 (2005): 693-710.
[15] Tansel, Ibrahim N., et al. "Wear estimation by testing the
elastic behavior of tool surface." International Journal of
Machine Tools and Manufacture 51.10 (2011): 745-752.
[16] Tansel, I. N., Singh, G., Korla, S., Grisso, B. L., Salvino,
L. W., & Uragun, B. (2011, June). Monitoring the integrity of
machine assemblies by using surface response to excitation
(SuRE) approach. In Recent Advances in Space Technologies
(RAST), 2011 5th International Conference on (pp. 64-67).
IEEE.
[17] Tansel, Ibrahim N., Javier Rojas, Ahmet Yapici, and
Balemir Uragun. "Study of the computational efficiency and
validity of the surface response to excitation method." In AIAA
infoterch and aerospace conference, pp. 19-21. 2012.
60

VISUAL LANE DETECTION ALGORITHM USING THE PERSPECTIVE TRANSFORM

Dr. Kevin S. McFall and David J. Tran
Southern Polytechnic State University
Marietta, GA USA
ABSTRACT
This manuscript develops a visual lane detection algorithm
using the Hough transform to detect strong lines in a road
image as candidates for lane boundaries. The search space in
the Hough transform is reduced by searching for lane
boundaries where they were detected in the previous video
frame. The perspective transform is applied to determine the
position and orientation of candidate lines, which are trusted as
true boundaries if the detected lane width falls within a
specified tolerance of the actual width. Results from a nearly 8minute long video of highway driving in rain indicate that lane
boundaries are correctly identified in 95% of the images.
Detection errors occur primarily during lane changes and poor
lighting when entering underpasses. Including data from
inertial measurements, location on digital maps, and steering
direction would help to reduce or eliminate the instances of
incorrectly detected lane location.
INTRODUCTION
Within the past decade the development of autonomous
automobiles has grown significantly. Semi-autonomous
vehicles are becoming more common in the commercial car
industry. Audi, for example is reinventing their vehicles with
many semi-autonomous features such as adaptive cruise
control, side assist, and lane assist [1]. However, fully
autonomous vehicles are still not available to the public. One
factor of autonomous vehicles that requires refinement and
improvement is the road detection system. The most common
detection method is through a vision-based system due to the
ability to collect data in a nonintrusive manner [2]. Typically a
vision-based system uses a camera to capture footage and a
sensor or laser to scan the preceding road area. Several methods
are used to approach a vision-based road detection system. One
concept analyzes road textures, and segments the road image
based on road and non-road regions [3]. A system using visual
memory stores guiding images to determine a drivable path for
current road images [4]. A detection method for urban areas
was proposed to identify curbs by using a Markov chain to
detect and link curb points [5]. Issues involving these methods
include the lack of precision and reliability when functioning
on a variety of roads and the inability to identify lane
boundaries on multi-lane roads.
Lane detection can be accomplished using a variety of

techniques. One system used color extraction to identify lane
markings on roads. However size, shape, and motion was also
considered in the detection process in order to differentiate
lanes and cars of similar color [6]. A fusion-based method of
laser scanners and video footage was developed to locate the
drivable region and then detect any necessary lanes on roads
[7]. A vision-based system incorporated vehicle localization on
a digital map to detect and predict lanes [8]. Another approach
develops modeled spatial context information shared by lanes,
using an algorithm applied learns to address issues with
shadows [9].
This manuscript introduces a lane-detection approach using
the perspective transform, including an approximate distance
from both the left and right lane boundaries. A detection
algorithm is applied by searching for lines with the largest
Hough transform value within the detection range where
boundary lines are expected. The algorithm then determines
whether the lines are to be trusted as the true lane boundaries
based on their physical distances as computed from the
perspective transform. In order to successfully navigate
autonomously, only one line boundary need be trusted at any
time as the position of other unknown boundary can be
accurately approximated.
PERSPECTIVE TRANSFORM
Image generation in cameras follows the central imaging
model in Figure 1 [10] where a camera with focal length f is
physically placed at the origin of the XYZ axes. Using similar
triangles, a point P in space is projected to position p on the xy
image plane according to
=
x
X
f=
and y
Z
Y
Z
(1)
A lane boundary line

=
Z MX + B
(2)
with slope M and intercept B in space would be located a

distance L to the left of the driver at an angle as in Figure 2
where
61
=
M cot
=
and B L csc
(3)
Assuming all objects to be detected, i.e. lane boundary lines,

are located at Y = H where H is the height of the camera above
the ground, and substituting Equation (2) into Equation (1), the
lane boundary projects to the line
HM
Hf
y=
x+
=+
mx b
B
B
(4)
B
in the image plane. The detection algorithm supplies the image

line parameters m and b which combined with Equation (3)
simplify to a lane boundary positioned at
H
L=
b
f +m
2
and = tan 1
b
mf
(5)
In general, a line in the image plane could correspond to an

infinite number of lines in real space, but Equation (5) shows
that restricting lines to a horizontal plane distance H below the
camera achieves a one-to-one correspondence between lines in
the image plane and real space.
Figure 2: Geometry of a lane boundary line in real

space for a car travelling at a distance L from the
line directed at an angle away from line.
Note that b is measured in length units and can be converted to
a pixel position with
bpix =
Nc
b
w
(7)
where Nc is the horizontal pixel resolution. Combining

Equations (5)-(7) rewrite the lane boundary position and
orientation as
P(X,Y,Z)
L=
2b tan ( 1 ) N 1 + 1 R 2 + m 2
c
2
pix
= tan 1
x
X
y
Y
Figure 1: Geometry for projecting a point P in XYZ space
to its location p on the xy camera image plane.
The diagonal angle of view is the angle between lines
from opposite corners of the image to the XYZ origin. This
angle, along with focal length f and image aspect ratio R, define
the width of the image as
2 f tan ( 12 )
1 + 1 R2
(8)
mN c 1 + 1 R 2
Locating the lane line boundary in relation to the driver

therefore requires the detection algorithm to supply the
equation of the line in the image plane via m and bpix, the
camera height H, horizontal image resolution Nc, aspect ratio R,
and angle of view . Note that the angle of view is the only
required specification of the camera hardware.
w=
2bpix tan ( 12 )
and
(6)
LINE DETECTION USING HOUGH TRANSFORM

The strategy for the line detection algorithm is to first
apply a Canny edge filter to create a binary image in which to
search for lines. A Hough transform [10] then tallies the number
of pixels in the binary image falling on any given line in the
image. In order to reduce the complexity of the Hough
transform, the top half of the image is cropped out since it falls
above the vanishing point for all road boundary lines.
Additionally, the left and right lane boundaries will always be
located in the left and right sides of the image, respectively. For
this reason the bottom left and bottom right quarters of the road
image are analyzed separately.
62
The Hough transform discretizes all possible lines using

parameters and rather than m and b as illustrated in Figure 4
to avoid discontinuities in the value of slope. The quantity ,
measured in pixels, represents the perpendicular distance from
the line to the top left corner of the image, which is different
depending on whether the left or right bottom quarter image is
being analyzed as reflected in parts a) and b) of Figure 4. The
detection algorithm returns the distance and angle of a
detected line, which is converted to slope using
m = tan
The and line with the largest Hough value within the final
bounded area is selected as a potential lane boundary line.
Notice how the two sides of the lane stripe are identified by the
detection algorithm, either of which are acceptable, and other
strong lines such as the road edge and guardrail are avoided.
other strong lines in image
successive lines identified by
the detection algorithm
(9)
and pixel intercept with
12 N c
bpix =
sin
tan
(10)
lane position from previous frame

a)
for a line to the left in Figure 4a and

bpix =
lane position from previous frame
(11)
cos
for a line to the right in Figure 4b.
(pi
xel
s)
1
b
successive lines
identified by the
detection algorithm
boundary of
growing region to
locate maximum
a)
b)
other strong lines in image
(rad)
Figure 4: Defining a line in the image space with either m

and b or and for the a) lower left quarter image and
the b) lower right quarter image.
Results of the Hough transform appear as an image such as
that in Figure 5b where the pixel intensity for a line with any
given and represents the number of pixels in the binary
edge image which fall on the line. The guiding principle for the
detection algorithm is to find local maximum in the Hough
image in the vicinity of where the lane boundary was identified
in the image streams previous picture frame. The road scene in
Figure 5a produces the Hough image in Figure 5b where the
dashed line on the road and circle in the Hough image represent
where the lane boundary was in the previous frame. A first
estimate for the new lane boundary is determined by finding the
maximum Hough value within a limited range bounded by the
smallest square area surrounding the circle in Figure 5b. This
square area is successively enlarged until both the average and
maximum Hough value in the bounded area stop increasing.
b)
Figure 5: Road image a) and corresponding Hough
transform b) used in the algorithm for detecting lane
boundaries.
EVALUATING THE ACCURACY OF DETECTED LINES
The line detection algorithm described above may fail for
any number of reasons such as poor lighting, occluded camera
view, nondescript lane boundary lines, etc. The perspective
transformation is used to identify false positives returned by the
detection algorithm. The and values for the left and right
potential lane boundaries are used with Equations (9)-(11) and
Equation (8) to determine the distance from and angle each line
makes with the camera position. The position of both boundary
lines are trusted if the distance between them is within 10% of
the known lane width for the road. An example of such a
situation appears in Figure 6a where both trusted lane
boundaries are marked with solid lines. Also indicated are the
63
distances from the camera of both detected lines (left and right),
and the difference between them (center) which is a reflection
of the detected lane width. If the distance between detected
lines is not within tolerance, one of the detected lines may still
be trusted according to:
Trust the detected left (or right) line if it was trusted in the
previous frame and its distance L has not changed more
than 1/6 of a lane width and the angle has not changed
more than 5 from the previous frame.
Trust the closer of the two detected lines if the distance
between them is within 10% of the known double lane
width (this covers the case where the detection algorithm
correctly identifies a two lane span instead of one)
Figure 7 at least one lane boundary is trusted during lane

change as is also the case in Figure 8 while raining. For the
nearly 8 minute long video of highway driving, a breakdown of
outcomes for the 1400 frames analyzed is:
1) 1330 frames: Successful
2) 9 frames: Both lines trusted, one correctly placed and
the other slightly off
3) 6 frames: Only one line trusted, which is significantly
misplaced
4) 55 frames: No line trusted
If only one of the detected lines is trusted, the position of the

other one is guessed using the perspective transform to define
where the boundary should be at one lane width away from the
trusted line. Figure 6b illustrates an example of this situation
where the detected lane width was not acceptable and the left
lane boundary is trusted but not the right. Notice that the
perspective transform correctly identifies the position of the
right lane boundary by assuming it is one lane width from the
trusted left line. If neither of the detected lines is trusted, it is
guessed that the car is driving straight ahead in the center of the
lane when searching for lines in the next frame. Detection is
considered successful if one or both boundary lines is trusted
and all trusted lines do in fact reflect the correct position of the
lane boundary.
a)
b)
Figure 6: Road images where a) both detected lane

boundaries are trusted and b) where one boundary is
trusted and the other is approximated.
RESULTS
In order to evaluate the robustness of the detection
algorithm, the first viable dashcam video found on YouTube
was selected, which happened to be a recording on a British
highway. The video was recorded at 30 frames per second
(FPS) but it was analyzed at 3 FPS to account for the lower
frame rate which would be expected if an embedded system
were to perform the analysis in real time in the vehicle. The
lane width was assumed to be 12 ft, camera height 3 ft, and
camera angle of view to be 50. Despite uncertainties in these
parameters, the algorithm was successful in appropriately
detecting a lane boundary 95% of the time. For example, in
Figure 7: Continued lane boundary detection during lane

change.
Obviously outcome 1) is the most common where 95% of the
frames successfully located at least one lane boundary line. The
9 frames in outcome 2) are not especially troubling since each
of the 9 incidents were momentary glitches where both the
previous and following frames were successful. One such
instance appears in Figure 9 where the detected right line is
slightly out of place. More problematic are the false positives in
outcome 3). The windshield wiper in Figure 10 is momentarily
mistaken for a boundary line because another strong line in the
image just happens to appear two lane widths away from the
64
wiper blade. Detection quickly recovers after one frame of

outcome 4) where no boundaries are trusted, representing a
brief 1 s of time between successful boundary detection. While
troubling, a 1 s lapse is not as critical when driving straight in
the middle of the lane. However, the other 5 frames of outcome
3) all occur during the same lane-changing incident in Figure
11. The incident is set off by reduced contrast from rain causing
a loss of detection as a lane change is initiated. First, 3 frames
of outcome 4) with no trusted line cause the algorithm to search
for lane boundaries in the middle of the lane where none
actually exists. A road streak is then mistaken for an actual
line. After 5 frames of trusting a streak that is not an actual
boundary, detection is lost for 7 more frames of outcome 4)
before successful detection resumes. This one incident alone is
responsible for 15 of the 70 unsuccessful frames. The primary
reason failure continues for so long, over 5 s, is that after
failing to detect a line, the algorithm searches by assuming the
car is in the middle of the lane which is obviously not the case
Figure 9: Example of outcome 2) where both detected

boundary lines are trusted but one (the left) is correct
while the other (the right) is slightly off.
Figure 10: Example of false positive outcome 3) where a

detected line is believed but significantly off.
Figure 8: Successful lane boundary detection while

raining.
when changing lanes. In an actual autonomous application,

other data such as steering direction could help inform the
algorithm where to look for lane boundaries.
Of the 44 outcome 4) frames not appearing in Figures 10
or 11, 7 involve a single frame before recovering, three cases (6
frames) span 2 unsuccessful frames in a row, one case spans 3
frames, and seven cases span 4 frame. One of the situations
spanning 4 frames appears in Figure 12 where the momentary
darkness of passing through an underpass hinders detection.
65
SUMMARY
In total, detection failed continuously in only 8 instances of
more than 1 s during the almost 8 minute period explored. An
actual autonomous vehicle would obviously require reducing
such instances to essentially none. Rules for when to trust the
detected lines can be expanded, and selection of design
parameters fine-tuned, although care should be taken to avoid
micromanaging to deal with specific situations in any given set
of images. For reference, the number of outcome 4) failures is
80, 55, 42, and 35 for lane width tolerances of 5, 10, 15, and
20% of the known width, respectively. Note that reducing
outcome 4) failures from 55 to 35 by increasing the tolerance
results in approximately a doubling of both outcome 3) and 4)
failures. Since the optimal set of design parameters will be
specific to each set of road images, it is recommended to resist
adjusting parameters, while using a simple set of rules for
detecting boundary lines in order to succeed over a wide variety
of different road conditions. However, developing a more
sophisticated local maxima search for analyzing the Hough
transform image is likely to result in improved performance for
all road conditions. Perhaps the most promising improvement
involves fusing image data with other sources of information
such as speed/direction/location from an inertial measurement
unit, steering direction, or road curvature and lane
configuration by locating the vehicle on digital maps using
GPS.
REFERENCES
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January 10, 2012, http://www.audiusanews.com/pressrelease/
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2013, Enhancement Performance of Road Recognition system
of Autonomous Robots in Shadow Scenario, Signal & Image
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[3] Graovac, S., and Goma, A., 2012, Detection of Road
Image Borders Based on Texture Classification, International
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[4] Courbon, J., Mezouar, Y., and Martinet, P., 2009,
Autonomous Navigation of Vehicles from a Visual Memory
Using a Generic Camera Model, IEEE Transactions on
Intelligent Transportation Systems., 10(3), pp. 392-402.
[5] Tan, J., Li, J., An, X., and He, H., 2014, Robust Curb
Detection with Fusion of 3D-lidar and Camera Data,
Sensors., 14, pp. 9046-9073.
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Figure 11: The other 5 frames of outcome 3) occurring

during a lane change, where the preceding and following
frames fail to detect boundary lines as in outcome 4).
66
Figure 12: Changing light conditions entering an

underpass and the resulting loss of lane boundary
detection.
[7] Li, Q., Chen, L., Li, M., Shaw, S., and Nuchter, A., 2014, A
Sensor-Fusion Drivable-Region and Lane Detection System for
Autonomous Vehicle Navigation in Challenging Road
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[8] Wang, C., Hu, Z., and Chapuis, R., 2012, Predictive Lane
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[10] Corke, P., 2011, Robotics, Vision, and Control, Springer,
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67

ANALYSIS AND CONTROL OF A UGV STOCHASTIC DISTURBANCE LOAD AND

WHEEL TORQUE
Mostafa Salama (PhD Candidate)
Mechanical Engineering Department
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama, USA
ABSTRACT
This study is fully based on previously published papers
and subsequent research done as a continuation during the last
year [1-3].
Developing an accurate model for an Unmanned Ground
Vehicle (UGV) on stochastic terrain is not an easy task due to
complex phenomena such as stochastic terrain properties. A
stochastic terrain mathematical model was developed and
introduced as a disturbance load in the inverse dynamics-based
control algorithm to introduce the on-line (real time) influence
of the terrain properties on a UGV. A control algorithm was
based on a developed strategy that utilized the inverse
dynamics approach and individual wheel angular velocity
control. This indirectly provides the required torque by
providing the required angular velocity and rolling radius for
each wheel to overcome wheel load torque produced from the
stochastic behavior of the terrain properties.
The objective of this study is to develop an analytical
method for a UGV angular velocity control that is based on
inverse longitudinal dynamics to indirectly provide the required
torque for each wheel to overcome stochastic wheel load torque
produced from the stochastic changes in the terrain properties.
The inverse dynamics control algorithm was integrated
with the DC motor mathematical model. The simulation results
show that the integrated model is distinguished by its
robustness to stochastic external disturbances. In addition, it
shows promising adaptability to disturbances in loading, wheel
load torques and changes in stochastic terrain properties.
INTRODUCTION
A skid-steered wheeled UGV requires a comprehensive
tire-terrain interaction model. Several studies have attempted to
define the nature of circumferential forces acting on a rigid
wheel moving in deformable media and the pressure
distribution along the contact area. However, much less effort
Vladimir V. Vantsevich
Mechanical Engineering Department
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama, USA
has been undertaken to investigate the interaction between a
UGVs deformable tires on deformable soft terrain (sand) [4-7].
Many researchers have investigated the wheel-terrain
interaction. A fundamental aspect of terramechanics was
described in [8], and the wheel traction performance,
considering stress distribution over the contact patch, has been
investigated in [6, 7]. Bekker, Janosi, and Hanamoto introduced
dependences to describe soil-shear diagram and equations for
stresses and forces acting on the tire-terrain interaction [8].
There are numerous sources of uncertainty. It can be due to
spatial variability of soil properties, the changing moisture of
the soil or to measurement errors. The simplest way to
represent uncertainty in vehicle dynamic simulations is to
model it as uncorrelated random variables using a random
sampling method such as the Monte-Carlo method, which is
easy to implement.
The ability to overcome terrain irregularities is mostly
dependent on the drive system of the UGV and its control. A
control algorithm can be used to improve terrainability, which
is related to minimizing wheel slip. Krebs et al., [9] proposed a
torque control method to improve the rover terrainability by
taking into account the whole mechanical structure of the rover.
Another control strategy has been proposed to improve vehicle
handling and stability based on the yaw control strategy [10].
The idea was that the driving torques of the inner and outer
wheels were changed in the same range at the same time during
turns. A method for wheel-ground contact angle measurement
and a traction control strategy minimizing slip in rough terrain
was presented in [11].
Reference [12] investigated motor torque-based active yaw
moment control law, based on which a vehicle stability control
algorithm for a four-wheel-drive electric vehicle that uses a
fuzzy logic control method is proposed.
Hallowell and Ray developed control algorithms for scale
model testing of an all-wheel drive system [13]. The control
algorithms seek to keep all four wheel speeds within a certain
percentage of one another to limit slip, while a torque
68
distribution system sets the torque command for each wheel,

based on its loading and the need to produce a yaw moment
[13]. A method for providing optimal torque to each
independently driven wheel of a vehicle moving on a slope is
given in [14], with a conclusion that the front/rear torque split
can be organized proportionally to the ratio of the normal
reactions of the wheels.
The UGV is propelled by individual electric motors at each
wheel. This enables individual control of each wheel as well as
the ability to calculate the rolling radius of each wheel in the
driving mode. The vehicle is considered a rigid body, since it
does not have a suspension.
A control method for tracking electric ground vehicle
planar motion while achieving the optimal energy consumption
was presented in [15]. In reference [16], a longitudinal vehicle
dynamics controller was designed to control the traction
electric motor and reduce the wheel slippage of a front wheel
drive vehicle.
It was found by a rigorous theoretical analysis and
confirmed in experiments Lefarov and his research group in
1960s and 1970s that the power expended in wheel slippage of
a 4x4 drive vehicle is at a minimum at equal slippages of the
wheels [17-19].
Wong demonstrated analytically that the slip efficiency is
maximized when the slip of the front wheels equals that of the
rear wheels. This was done for a 4x4 vehicle subjected to a
drawbar load under normal operating conditions; the study was
based on a tire-soil interaction research carried out by Reece
[20]. Wong et al. showed experimentally that slip efficiency
attains its maximum at a theoretical speed ratio equal or close
to 1. This means that the slip efficiency reaches its peak when
the theoretical velocities of the front and rear wheels are equal
to one another [21, 22].
While the majority investigated torque control for each
side of the UGV, some focused on individual torque control,
which requires measurements of the the torque on each wheel.
Also, the rolling radius in the model had not yet been taken into
account. The studies referred to were performed for vehicles in
steady motion. In addition, controlling UGV wheel angular
velocities individually based on the inverse longitudinal
dynamics approach was not yet introduced to overcome
stochastic terrain disturbances. Thus, a control algorithm is
developed based on the inverse dynamics approach, which
provides each wheel with both the specified angular velocity
and rolling radius to indirectly provide the required wheel
torques for a desired input program of motion.
The next section of this study presents key elements of the
stochastic tire-terrain interaction that were analyzed based on
the Monte Carlo method and integrated with the pneumatic
wheel mathematical model. Then, analysis of the rolling
resistance in longitudinal motion is presented, as is the
generation of the stochastic wheel load torque from the rolling
resistance force.
In addition, the UGV mathematical model based on the
inverse dynamics approach with the control model will be
introduced. Lastly, the mathematical simulation results will be

discussed.
STOCHASTIC TERRAIN PROPERTIES
From the terramechanics approach, which relates the
normal and shear stress components, the tire-terrain interaction
and how it relates with the wheel forces, it is obvious that the
terrain properties , , , , and have a direct effect on
the calculation of the normal and shear stresses and on
circumferential force (thrust) produced in the tire-terrain
contact [1].
According to [23], there are numerous sources of
uncertainty in a terrain. Uncertainty in geotechnical terrain
properties can be formally grouped into Aleatory and Epistemic
uncertainty [24]. Aleatory uncertainty represents the natural
randomness of a property and, as such, is a function of the
spatial variability of the property. Recognizing spatial
variability is important because it can help distinguish the
distances over which it occurs compared to the scale of the data
of interest [25]. Epistemic uncertainty results from a lack of
information and shortcomings in measurement and/or
calculation.
An extensive literature review was done. Few studies
investigated the uncertainty behavior of soil parameters.
Madsen [23] showed experimental raw values for nominal soil
parameters values from Wong [7] for dry sand with 0%
moisture shown in Table 1. It was assumed that spatial
variability leads to uncertainty of 5% about the nominal
values [23].
Table 1: Deterministic soil parameters [7]
/+
0.999
/+2
1528.4
1.1
/2
1.04
Degrees
28
10
According to the literature, it can be said that the soil

parameters can be considered as stochastic variables, where the
mean values are the deterministic values shown in Table 1,
while the standard deviation, minimum, and maximum were
calculated based on the experimental data from [23].
Table 2 shows mean, standard deviation, minimum, and
maximum for experimental data in [23].
Table 2: Statistical soft-soil parameters
Mean
STD
Min
Max
0.999
0.029
0.951
1.047
1528.4
44.79
1457.6
1601.2
1.1
0.032
1.045
1.154
1.04
0.03
0.960
1.115
28
0.57
26.58
29.27
10
0.001
9.512
10.497
Uncertainties in vehicle dynamic simulations can be

modeled as uncorrelated random variables using random
69
mean value, standard deviation equal 0.029 kN/mn+1 and

minimum and maximum bound equal to 0.9511 and 1.0476
/+1 respectively. Figure 1 shows different fit
distributions for terrain properties , , , , , .
Maximum likelihood estimation is a preferred method of
parameter estimation in statistics and is an indispensable tool
for many statistical modeling techniques, in particular in nonlinear modeling with non-normal data. The value of Log
likelihood indicates that the tool uses the maximum likelihood
estimators to fit the distribution. Notice the Parameter
estimates; given the data, dfittool in Matlab estimates the
unknown parameters of the distribution and then graphs the
probability density function corresponding to these parameters.
Different theoretical probabilistic distributions (Normal,
Lognormal, Gamma, Weibull) were fitted to the experimental
results. No single distribution was found to be the most suitable
for all soil parameters. Normal distribution was selected for
easy implementation and easiness in computations. (See Table
3). This was another limitation of study, and it requires further
investigation by using larger number of statistical analysis and
experimental data.
sampling method such as the Monte Carlo method. This is easy

to implement; however, it needs a large number of runs, i.e.,
1000.
The Monte Carlo method can be defined as a stochastic
simulation that generates random values providing approximate
solutions for mathematical problems by performing
computational sampling experiments [26]. One of the methods
advantages is the computational efficiency for a high number of
parameters, such as complex analytical functions and
combinatorial problems, especially relevant for the present
work. The Monte Carlo simulation is based on the production
of pseudo-random uniformly distributed values, a basic
probabilistic distribution, required to simulate all other
distributions where the produced numbers must be independent;
that is, the number generated in one run does not influence the
value of the next one [26].
The efficiency of the stochastic simulation depends on the
knowledge about the problem, i.e., the prior information that
constrains the simulation; thus the importance of good
probability distribution fitting with reliable parameters [27].
As shown previously in Table 2, the mean and standard
deviation for each soil parameters are calculated based on
experimental data in [23]. For example has 0.999 /+1
Figure 1: Different fit distributions for stochastic terrain properties

Table 3: Log likelihood values for different fits for terrain properties
Distribution
Fit
Normal
Lognormal
Weibull
Gamma
2133.59
2132.72
2068.4
2133.15
-5222.21
-5224.63
-5265.29
-5223.69
2070.82
2071.71
1982
2071.54
2107.48
2106.09
2033.08
2106.7
3193.42
3192.12
3123.17
3192.63
5490.3
5480.52
5464.29
5485.39
70
Figure 2: Normal distribution of stochastic terrain properties
Figure 3: Histogram and normal fit of stochastic terrain properties

Using Monte Carlo techniques, Figure 2 shows a normal
distribution of 1000 samples with the mean, standard deviation,
minimum and maximum values from Table 2. Figure 3 is a
histogram of the data shown in Figure 2. A histogram is a way
of summarizing data distribution by dividing up the range of

possible values in a data set into intervals; it shows how
frequently data occur within certain intervals. The height of
each interval gives the density in the respective interval.
71
RESISTANCE TO MOTION IN LONGITUDINAL

DIRECTION
When moving on uneven, off-road terrain, energy is
consumed to overcome the motion resistance. The motion
resistance is the sum of several components that occur between
the tire and terrain or in the tire itself on a rigid surface. The
main components are the soil compaction, rolling resistance (or
resistance due to the tire flexing), and bulldozing resistance.
Understanding each component is very essential for the UGV
dynamics analysis. The main components of the resistance to
motion are expressed as [7]
= + +
(1)
where is the total motion resistance force, is the

component due to bulldozing the soil in front of the wheel,
is the component due to soil compaction and is the
component due to the tire flexing [7].
Bekker proposed the following expression to determine the
compaction resistance of a soil [28]
[(+)](+1)/
1
2
180
sin(+)
= 2 sin cos 2 + 2 +
+ 2 tan(45 + )
2
where
540
(4)
= tan + 1 cos 2 ,
= ( tan ) cos2 ,
= cos1 (1
3 (90)
), and = tan2 (45 ).

2
where is the wheel sinkage , is the angle of approach, is

the distance of rupture, and are Terzaghi Coefficients
[29], is the wheel diameter, and is the soil density.
(2)
+ (+1)
where is the tire inflation pressure and is the tire carcass

stiffness pressure, is the wheel width when it is the smaller
dimension of the contact patch. Pressure is difficult to
determine, since it varies with the change of the inflation
pressure and normal load of the tire. For this case, Bekker
introduced an expression to determine the ground pressure ,
which is equal to the sum of both inflation pressure and tire
carcass stiffness pressure. The latter is normally available in the
tire manufacturer documentation for a given inflation pressure
and wheel load [8].
Due to the hysteresis of the tire material caused by the
flexing of the tire, resisting force against the motion of the
tire appears. Bekker proposed the following semi-empirical
relation to predict based on test data [28]:
=
Bulldozing resistance is developed when a substantial soil

mass is displaced by a wheel, as shown in Figure 4. The wheel
compresses the surface layers of the soil and pushes the
compacted soil in front and behind the tire [8].
Bulldozing resistance can be calculated by implementing
the theory of bearing capacity of soils subject to various criteria
of failure [8]
3.581 2 (0.0349sin 2 )
(2 )
(3)
= 1 [( 2 )/] is the contact angle in degrees and

= 1 exp ( /), while is the tire deflection, is the
tire section height, the coefficient is equal to 15 for bias-ply
tire and 7 for radial-ply tire [7].
Figure 4. Bulldozer effect in longitudinal direction

STOCHASTIC DISTURBANCE TORQUE
The disturbance load torque at the motors shaft can affect
the performance of the motor and the UGV. Taking this
disturbance into account enhances the robustness of the system.
The disturbance load is generated using stochastic terrain
behavior characteristics [1,2].
The wheel load torque can be determined from
()
()
= ()
+ . () + () 0
()
+ ()

(5)
where is the wheel inertia, is the wheel angular

acceleration and 0 is the wheel radius in the driven mode.
72
()
were calculated from Eqn. (1), which was used in
the terrain blocks in the control algorithm block diagram shown

in Fig. 10, which have a stochastic behavior produced from the
stochastic terrain.
Figure 5 shows the stochastic load torque to all wheels of
the UGV on a horizontal terrain (no longitudinal slopes or
terrain irregularities).
()
= 2=1
()
= 2=1 +
+ (6)
where is the total rolling resistance force, is the UGV

weight, and and superscripts denote for right and left
wheels, respectively. is the mass factor that makes allowance
for the inertia of rotating masses of the vehicle. As was shown
by an analysis, the small frontal area and low operating speed
of the UGV allow the air drag to be neglected.
Figure 7: Vehicle on grade
Figure 5: Stochastic load torque

UGV INVERSE DYNAMICS AND CONTROL
A free-body diagram of an AWD (All Wheel Drive) UGV
within the plain of the road is shown in Fig. 6.
Figure 8: Normal tire reactions diagram

The vehicle is considered as a rigid body, since it does not
have a suspension as shown in Figs 7 and 8.
Taking moments around contact patch of the front axle,
one can receive
Figure 6: A free-body diagram of an all-wheel drive UGV

in straight motion
Figure 6 gives a free-body diagram of UGV normal and

longitudinal dynamics on a slope. With reference to Figs 6 and
7, the equation of motion with the longitudinal acceleration
of the vehicle is written in inverse dynamics formulation in
order to determine the UGV total circumferential force :
2 (2 2 ) = 1 1 + + 0 +

(7)
For calculation simplicity it can be assumed that 1 =

2 = 0 (adi is the shift of the normal reaction due to internal
tire friction and friction in road-tire contact patch). See Fig. 7.
When the plane of motion is horizontal, = 0. In
addition, it can be assumed that the bulldozing resistances are
acting in the same plane of the contact patch. In this case, Eqn.
(7) can be written as
73
2 = 0 +
2
(8)
Taking moments around the contact patch of the rear axle,

the following expression is obtained for the normal tire reaction
of the front wheels
1 =
2 0
2
(9)
As seen in Fig. 8, taking the summation of moments about

left side contact patches
(10)
And by taking the summation of moments about right side

contact patches
(11)
The normal loads vary due to three factors, including

weight transfer caused by the acceleration, terrain inclination,
and a stochastic micro-profile from uneven terrain. The normal
loads on each wheel are derived from summing the moments
about the ground contact point of the front tires. The
acceleration is specified, since the study utilizes the inverse
dynamics approach.
Figure 9 shows the results of computer simulations of a
stochastic rolling resistance in steady state motion (longitudinal
acceleration of the wheel equal to zero) computed using the
method introduced.
The UGV control algorithm presented is based on the

wheel inverse dynamics-based control presented in the last
section. There are two loops in each wheel control: (i) an
internal loop to control the acceleration , and (ii) an external
loop to control the angular velocity .
The inverse dynamics approach requires a defined program
of motion as an input to the simulation model. The developed
control algorithm controls the angular velocity of four
independent driven wheels by equating the slip of each wheel.
First, the input acceleration profile is integrated to obtain
the UGV longitudinal velocity which is used in conjunction
with the wheel rolling radius to calculate the reference angular
for each wheel as shown in Figure 3.41.

velocity
By substituting in Eqn. (6), the UGV total circumferential
force can be calculated for different program of motion, plane
inclination, and different terrain properties. This requires
summing all circumferential forces for all wheels, equating it
with Equation (6) and solving the equation for s when all
slippages are the same.
In parallel, the Terrain blocks in Fig. 10 contain all
equations related to the terrain properties, which are used to
generate stochastic terrain characteristics under each wheel
independently. Then, the Load blocks calculate stochastic
wheel load torques. At the same time, the Wheels blocks have
the wheel angular velocity control block diagram. These blocks
are used to calculate angular velocities and the required wheel
motor torques to overcome stochastic disturbance torques.
Figure 10: Control algorithm block diagram
Figure 9: Stochastic rolling resistance for a UGV
RESULTS
Once applying a stochastic load, the output wheel angular
velocity is no longer able to reach the reference input
(specified) angular velocity, (see Fig. 11). It should be
emphasized here that this computational test is conducted under
the condition where all the wheels are independent from each
other, i.e., there is no simulation of mechanical connection
74
between the wheels and the vehicle frame. In the case when no
control is applied, the front wheels have lower angular
velocities due to higher rolling resistance. The multi-pass effect
has a huge influence on the rolling resistance for the rear tires
as shown before in Fig. 5. Therefore, the rotational speed of the
rear wheels is higher than that of the front wheels.
Figure 13: Specified longitudinal acceleration ,
Figure 14 illustrates the specified longitudinal velocity

profile that is obtained through the integration of the
acceleration.
Figure11: Stochastic wheel angular velocities

()
without inverse dynamic control
The corresponding wheel torques applied to the four

wheels to overcome stochastic terrain load and provide the
angular velocities shown in Fig. 11 are shown in Fig. 12.
Figure 14: Specified longitudinal velocity ,
Figure 15 confirms that the calculated angular velocities

for each wheel are identical with the required (specified)
angular velocity, which means that the control algorithm is
working properly with minimal error (not exceeding 0.1%) and
is very stable in the UGV normal operating conditions.
Figure 12: Stochastic electric motor torque ()
produced to overcome the stochastic wheel load torque

()
without inverse dynamic control
In order to test the proposed control algorithm for all four

wheels sitting on the same frame and having the same linear
velocity , an acceleration profile is generated and used as a
required program of UGV motion as shown in Fig. 13.
()
Figure 15: Angular velocity
The corresponding wheels motors torques vary to

compensate for uncertainties in the stochastic terrain load as
shown in Fig. 16.
75
Figure 16: Motor Torque ()

,
CONCLUSION
In this study, an analytical method for an all-wheel drive
off-road UGVs individual angular velocity control is
developed based on inverse longitudinal dynamics. The method
includes a stochastic terrain model and an inverse dynamicsbased control algorithm of a UGV 4x4 drive pneumatic wheels
to overcome stochastic terrain behavior.
A stochastic terrain mathematical model was developed
and used as a disturbance load in the control algorithm to
introduce the on-line (real time) influence of the terrain
conditions on loading of a single wheel of a UGV.
Experimental values for the relationship between the supplied
voltage and the DC motor angular velocity were introduced to
confirm the validity of the DC motor parameters used in this
model.
The outlined method of UGV dynamics control is based on
the inverse dynamics formulation. The provided algorithm for
wheel angular velocity control by varying the wheel torque is
based on the inverse wheel dynamics and the control-byacceleration principle. The model includes the developed
control algorithm to control the angular velocity of four
independently driven wheels by equating the slip of each
wheel.
The inverse dynamics control algorithm was integrated
with the DC motor mathematical model. The integrated model
is distinguished by its robustness to stochastic external
disturbances. It showed promising adaptability to disturbances
in loading, wheel load torques and changes in stochastic terrain
properties.
Future work will be conducted considering variable rolling
radii in driven mode for each wheel individually and
investigating energy losses due to slippage for each wheel. This
will bring about further advances in vehicle performance
control by distributing optimal power to the drive wheels.
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77
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SECTION 3

DYNAMIC SYSTEMS & CONTROL

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Early Career Technical Conference

LOW-COST PLATFORM FOR AUTONOMOUS GROUND VEHICLE RESEARCH

degree of maneuverability and space for expansion of the

Figure 1. Motor-Wheel Assembly

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

at the back by reversing the direction of the motors as shown in

Figure 3. Stand with Raspberry Pi Mount

Figure 2. Axis of rotation

The vehicle controller was cut out of plastic using a

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

Figure 4. Vehicle Controller

The completed platform met all of the design

Figure 5. Completed Vehicle

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

Send value between

Figure 6. Flow chart for Raspberry Pi programming.

algorithms to offer obstacle avoidance and detection of road

Read value from

Read values from

Read value from Pi

Write PWM: value = 2 left

Figure 8. System schematic

The image acquisition and processing script is run

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Vehicle Based on Adaptive-PID, International Journal of

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

APPENDIX A RASPBERRY PI PYTHON SCRIPT

APPENDIX B ARDUINO SKETCH

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Early Career Technical Conference

LASER SCANNING VIBROMETER FOR REMOTE PROCESS PERFORMANCE

Ibrahim Nur Tansel

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

implementation of those methods is pending more research and

or non-contact laser scanning vibrometer. Like the impedance

SURE METHOD THEORY

EXPERIMENTAL TEST SET UP

R and A are the reference and secondary (altered) data

The Normalized Squared Differences (NSSDs) are also

Figure 1 shows the SSD values calculated for spectra of a

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

surface, the surface guided waves were excited on the beam

Figure 1 The change of squares of the differences

Figure 2 aluminum beam with a piezoelectric attached in

As shown in Figure 4, the scan grid includes 42 scan points

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

Figure 4. 314 scan grid with 42 scan points; Region 1

The interesting phenomenon about the obtained results is

Table 1: Drill hole diameters at during a 6 step drilling

Figure 5 The cutting process on the aluminum beam and

Figure 7 Normalized sum of squared differences (NSSDs)

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13

Due to the observation of Figure 6, the NSSD values could

Figure 9 Normalized sum of squared differences (NSSDs)

Figure 8 The drilling process on the aluminum beam and

Digital Data Synthesizer (DDS60)

Integrated Circuit DSP

WFB PZT element

UAB School of Engineering - ECTC 2014 Proceedings - Vol. 13