Localization is an essential capability for mobile robots, enabling them to build a comprehensive representation of their environment and interact with the environment effectively toward a goal. A rapidly growing field of research in this area is visual place recognition (VPR), which is the ability to recognize previously seen places in the world based solely on images. For … [Read more...] about Visual Place Recognition: A Tutorial [Tutorial]
Global navigation satellite system
Reinforcement Learning for Outdoor Balloon Navigation: A Successful Controller for an Autonomous Balloon
Autonomous ballooning allows for energy-efficient long-range missions but introduces significant challenges for planning and control algorithms, due to their single degree of actuation: vertical rate control through either buoyancy or vertical thrust. Lateral motion is typically due to the wind; thus, balloon flight is both nonholonomic and often stochastic. Finally, wind is … [Read more...] about Reinforcement Learning for Outdoor Balloon Navigation: A Successful Controller for an Autonomous Balloon
Field Robot for High-Throughput and High-Resolution 3D Plant Phenotyping: Towards Efficient and Sustainable Crop Production
With the need to feed a growing world population, the efficiency of crop production is of paramount importance. To support breeding and field management, various characteristics of the plant phenotype need to be measured, a time-consuming process when performed manually. We present a robotic platform equipped with multiple laser and camera sensors for high-throughput, … [Read more...] about Field Robot for High-Throughput and High-Resolution 3D Plant Phenotyping: Towards Efficient and Sustainable Crop Production
