B.Sc. Thesis: Leander Busch on Learning Motion Models for Local Path Planning Strategies

Supervisors: Elmar Rückert, Nils Rottmann

Finished: 15.Februar.2021

Abstract

The Segway Loomo is a self-balancing segway robot, which is constantly balanced by an internal control system. A local path planning strategy was developed in advance for this robot. For local path planning, a motion model of the robot is needed to determine the effect of velocity commands on the robot’s pose. In the implemented local path planner, a simple motion model of the robot is used, which does not model the effect of the segway robot’s internal control on its motion. In this work, it was investigated whether a more accurate motion model for the Segway Loomo robot can be learned by using artificial neural networks to improve the local path planning for this robot. For this purpose, different architectures of feedforward networks were tested. The neural networks were trained and evaluated using recorded motion data of the segway robot. The best learned model was validated by using a standard differential drive motion model as a reference. For the validation of the learned model, the accuracy of both motion models was examined on the recorded motion data. On average, the learned model is 59.48 % more accurate in determining the position of the robot at the next time step and 24.61 % more accurate in determining the new orientation of the robot than the differential drive motion model.

Thesis

Erlernen von Bewegungsmodellen für lokale Pfadplanungsstrategien