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Thomas Howard
PhD Student

Associated centers: NREC and FRC

Email address: thoward@andrew.cmu.edu

Mailing address:
Carnegie Mellon University
Robotics Institute
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Jump to: Research interests | Keywords | Projects | Publications

Research interests

I am interested in developing control and path planning algorithms for outdoor mobile robots which reason about their environment and known vehicle dynamics. Typically, rough terrain and vehicle dynamics are ignored at the path planning and control level, resulting in the generation of paths which are incorrectly assumed to be continuous and if followed, would not meet goal position and orientation state constraints. Terrain shape does not necessarily need to be treated as an unknown disturbance since a world model is usually known and used elsewhere in outdoor mobile robot planning systems.

My recent research has involved developing rough terrain trajectory generation algorithms as part of the Mars Technology Program. Our research group's efforts have resulted in a rough terrain trajectory generator which linearizes and inverts forward models of propulsion, suspension, and motion to find parameterized body-frame controls which meet arbitrary boundary state constraints. We have implemented these algorithms on hardware for local path planning and path tracking.

This section last updated - October 2006.

Research interest keywords

control, factory and warehouse automation, field robotics, mobile robots, motion planning, obstacle avoidance, and space robotics

Current Projects

Tartan Racing - Carnegie Mellon University is teaming with General Motors to compete in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.
UGCV PerceptOR Integrated - The UPI (UGCV PerceptOR Integrated) program integrates and enhances the results from UGCV and PerceptOR to increase the speed and autonomy of unmanned ground vehicles operating in complex terrain. By combining the inherent mobility of Spinner with advanced perception techniques including the use of learning and prior terrain data, the UPI program stresses system design across vehicle, sensors and software so that the strengths of one component compensate for the weaknesses of another.
Urban Challenge
Very Rough Terrain Nonholonomic Trajectory Generation and Motion Planning for Rovers - We are developing rough terrain trajectory generation algorithms for local path planning and optimal regional motion planning methods using a constrained search space.

Recent publications [View all 13 publications]

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