We present a highly effective approach for the calibration of vehicle models. The approach combines the output error technique of system identification theory and the convolution integral solutions of linear systems and stochastic calculus. Rather than calibrate the system differential equation directly for unknown parameters, we calibrate its first integral. This integrated prediction error minimization (IPEM) approach is advantageous because it requires only low-frequency observations of state, and produces unbiased parameter estimates that optimize simulation accuracy for the chosen time horizon. We address the calibration of models that describe both systematic and stochastic dynamics, such that uncertainties can be computed for model predictions. We resolve numerous implementation issues in the application of IPEM, such as the efficient linearization of the dynamics integral with respect to parameters, the treatment of uncertainty in initial conditions, and the formulation of stochastic measurements and measurement covariances. While the technique can be used for any dynamical system, we demonstrate its usefulness for the calibration of wheeled vehicle models used in control and estimation. Specifically we calibrate models of odometry, powertrain dynamics, and wheel slip as it affects body frame velocity. Experimental results are provided for a variety of indoor and outdoor platforms.

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The motions of wheeled mobile robots are largely governed by contact forces between the wheels and the terrain. Inasmuch as future wheel-terrain interactions are unpredictable and unobservable, high performance autonomous vehicles must ultimately learn the terrain by feel and extrapolate, just as humans do. We present an approach to the automatic calibration of dynamic models of arbitrary wheeled mobile robots on arbitrary terrain. Inputs beyond our control (disturbances) are assumed to be responsible for observed differences between what the vehicle was initially predicted to do and what it was subsequently observed to do. In departure from much previous work, and in order to directly support adaptive and predictive controllers, we concentrate on the problem of predicting candidate trajectories rather than measuring the current slip. The approach linearizes the nominal vehicle model and then calibrates the perturbative dynamics to explain the observed prediction residuals. Both systematic and stochastic disturbances are used, and we model these disturbances as functions over the terrain, the velocities, and the applied inertial and gravitational forces. In this way, we produce a model which can be used to predict behavior across all of state space for arbitrary terrain geometry. Results demonstrate that the approach converges quickly and produces marked improvements in the prediction of trajectories for multiple vehicle classes throughout the performance envelope of the platform, including during aggressive maneuvering.

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