Source Seeking Control of Unicycle Robots with 3D-printed Flexible Piezoresistive Sensors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a source seeking control method for unicycle robots using novel 3D-printed graphene airflow sensors, combining gradient ascent and extremum-seeking algorithms with proven convergence and experimental validation.

Contribution

It presents a new sensor design and control algorithms for source seeking, including solutions for sensor failure scenarios, with theoretical and experimental validation.

Findings

Algorithms successfully guide robots to the source.

Sensors provide reliable local airflow gradient measurements.

Control laws ensure asymptotic convergence to the source.

Abstract

We present the design and experimental validation of source seeking control algorithms for a unicycle mobile robot that is equipped with novel 3D-printed flexible graphene-based piezoresistive airflow sensors. Based solely on a local gradient measurement from the airflow sensors, we propose and analyze a projected gradient ascent algorithm to solve the source seeking problem. In the case of partial sensor failure, we propose a combination of Extremum-Seeking Control with our projected gradient ascent algorithm. For both control laws, we prove the asymptotic convergence of the robot to the source. Numerical simulations were performed to validate the algorithms and experimental validations are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methods.