Koopman Operator Framework for Modeling and Control of Off-Road Vehicle on Deformable Terrain

This work presents a hybrid physics-informed and data-driven modeling framework for predictive control of autonomous off-road vehicles operating on deformable terrain. Traditional high-fidelity terramechanics models are often too computationally demanding to be directly used in control design. Modern Koopman operator methods can be used to represent the complex terramechanics and vehicle dynamics in a linear form. We develop a framework whereby a Koopman linear system can be constructed using data from simulations of a vehicle moving on deformable terrain. For vehicle simulations, the deformable-terrain terramechanics are modeled using Bekker-Wong theory, and the vehicle is represented as a simplified five-degree-of-freedom (5-DOF) system. The Koopman operators are identified from large simulation datasets for sandy loam and clay using a recursive subspace identification method, where Grassmannian distance is used to prioritize informative data segments during training. The advantage of this approach is that the Koopman operator learned from simulations can be updated with data from the physical system in a seamless manner, making this a hybrid physics-informed and data-driven approach. Prediction results demonstrate stable short-horizon accuracy and robustness under mild terrain-height variations. When embedded in a constrained MPC, the learned predictor enables stable closed-loop tracking of aggressive maneuvers while satisfying steering and torque limits.

Online learning of Koopman operator using streaming data from different dynamical regimes

The paper presents a framework for online learning of the Koopman operator using streaming data. Many complex systems for which data-driven modeling and control are sought provide streaming sensor data, the abundance of which can present computational challenges but cannot be ignored. Streaming data can intermittently sample dynamically different regimes or rare events which could be critical to model and control. Using ideas from subspace identification, we present a method where the Grassmannian distance between the subspace of an extended observability matrix and the streaming segment of data is used to assess the `novelty' of the data. If this distance is above a threshold, it is added to an archive and the Koopman operator is updated if not it is discarded. Therefore, our method identifies data from segments of trajectories of a dynamical system that are from different dynamical regimes, prioritizes minimizing the amount of data needed in updating the Koopman model and furthermore reduces the number of basis functions by learning them adaptively. Therefore, by dynamically adjusting the amount of data used and learning basis functions, our method optimizes the model's accuracy and the system order.