The University of Sydney

Surya P N Singh

Hugh Durrant-Whyte

Ross Hennessy

Eric William Nettleton

Ali Haydar Göktogan

Pantelis Elinas

Xiuyi Fan

Guralawela Ekanayake Mudiyanselage Dharmapriya Cha Bandara

Florian Oppolzer

A hierarchical control system () for supervising operations of an autonomous operator located within a defined geographical region containing a localized zone having an operation-defined boundary. The control system () has a primary controller () associated with the defined geographical region and a secondary controller () associated with the localized zone. The secondary controller () is responsive to the supervisory control of the primary controller (). The autonomous operator, if located within the localized zone, is responsive to the supervisory control of the secondary controller ().

Control system for autonomous operation

Forming a sequence plan for a machine to travel to a series of specified locations is described. An initial cost table () and a pattern of locations () is inputted to a Sequential Ordering Problem (SOP) solver (). The resulting sequence () is processed by a motion planner () to derive by a motion planning procedure a plan of machine motions through the sequence. A cost table update () is performed based on the motion plan, which is then used for another iteration of the SOP solver ().

Drill hole planning

A method is described of regulating movement of an autonomous entity between a first zone () and a second zone (), wherein the first and second zones each have an operation-defined geographical boundary within a defined geographical region. The autonomous entity is instructed to move into a transition zone () that spans the first zone and the second zone, wherein the autonomous entity while located in the first zone is responsive to supervisory control of a first controller () associated with the first zone. The autonomous entity is registered with a second controller () associated with the second zone to enable the autonomous entity to respond to supervisory control of the second controller as the autonomous entity enters the second zone through the transition zone. The autonomous entity is de-registered from the first controller.

Method and system for regulating movement of an entity between zones

An autonomous navigation system for a tracked or skid-steer vehicle is described. The system includes a path planner () that computes a series of waypoint locations specifying a path to follow and vehicle location sensors (). A tramming controller () includes a waypoint controller () that computes vehicle speed and yaw rate setpoints based on vehicle location information from the vehicle location sensor and the locations of a plurality of neighboring waypoints, and a rate controller () that generates left and right track speed setpoints from the speed and yaw rate setpoints. A vehicle control interface actuates the vehicle controls in accordance with the left and right track speed setpoints.

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Brisbane, Australia

Surya P N Singh