We prove that quasi-static pushing with a sticking contact and ellipsoid approximation of the limit surface is differentially flat. Both graphical and algebraic derivations are given. A major conclusion is the pusher-slider system is reducible to the Dubins car problem where the sticking contact constraints translate to bounded curvature. Planning is as easy as computing Dubins curves with the ...

The general trend towards ubiquitous networking has reached the realm of airplanes. E-enabled airplanes with wired and wireless network interfaces offer a wide spectrum of network applications, in particular electronic distribution of software (EDS), and onboard collection and off-board retrieval of airplane health reports. On the other hand, airplane safety may be heavily dependent on the secu...

The next-generation commercial airplane models have networking facilities that enable onboard systems to communicate between themselves as well as with offboard systems. This new feature allows network applications to realize many benefits for airplane manufacturing, operations and maintenance processes. However, at the same time vulnerabilities are introduced that can threaten the onboard syst...

In this paper we propose some novel planning and routing strategies for Dubins’ vehicle, i.e., for a nonholonomic vehicle moving along paths with bounded curvature, without reversing direction. First, we study a stochastic version of the Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP): given n targets randomly sampled from a uniform distribution in a rectangle, what is the shortest Dubins’ tour through the...

Consider the problem of moving a rigid body as quickly as possible between two configurations in a plane without obstacles. There may be many trajectories between the two configurations; which trajectories are fastest depends on the available controls. For example, the fastest way to move a kinematic model of a car with bounded steering angle a short distance sideways might be to execute a part...

In this paper we study minimum-time motion planning and routing problems for the Dubins vehicle, i.e., a nonholonomic vehicle that is constrained to move along planar paths of bounded curvature, without reversing direction. Motivated by autonomous aerial vehicle applications, we consider the Traveling Salesperson Problem for the Dubins vehicle (DTSP): given n points on a plane, what is the shor...