ME Faculty Candidate Seminar: Tulga Ersal

ME Faculty Candidate Seminar:

“Pushing the Mobility Limits of Autonomous Driving”

Tulga Ersal

Associate Research Scientist

University of Michigan

Monday, April 3, 2023, 11:00 am

2540 ME Grand Conference Room

GG Brown Building

Seminar Zoom Link

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Abstract: 

Safely exploiting the mobility limits of a vehicle is an essential capability for autonomous driving in time and safety critical applications such as extreme maneuvers in military operations or high-speed collision avoidance on roads. However, the traditional approach of treating planning and control problems separately leads to overly conservative solutions and limits such exploitation. To address this gap, we propose a paradigm shift from separate to combined treatment of planning and control problems, which allows for solving both problems with a consistent understanding of the capabilities and limits of the vehicle for improving performance and safety. This is done in a model predictive control framework with special consideration for reliable and real-time performance throughout the formulation and solution stages. Augmenting this framework with real-time estimation of critical unknown parameters provides an adaptive solution that further increases its performance and reliability. The framework is demonstrated using aggressive emergency maneuvers in both off-road vehicles on uncertain deformable terrains and on-road vehicles with uncertain coefficients of friction. The results show that the new framework leads to significant increases in safety, performance, and reliability. Experimental validation on a military vehicle on deformable terrain confirms the real-world implementability and benefits of the framework. Thus, this framework and its design workflow lays the foundation for future studies to push the mobility limits of autonomous driving to meet the complex autonomous navigation challenges in real-world applications.

Bio: 

Tulga Ersal received the B.S.E. degree from the Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2001, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA, in 2003 and 2007, respectively, all in mechanical engineering. He is currently an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA. His research focuses on grand challenges in vehicle and energy systems through a system dynamics and control lens, and spans many applications, including safely maximizing the performance across the full spectrum of levels of autonomy, creating a connected testbeds paradigm for remote and equitable access to engineering testbeds, and increasing the sustainability of our energy future through contributions to energy storage, conversion, and management. He serves as the Chief Scientist of the Automotive Research Center, a U.S. Army Center of Excellence for Modeling and Simulation of Ground Vehicles led by the University of Michigan, as well as the Autonomy Lead for the NATO Research Task Group on Mobility Assessment Methods and Tools for Autonomous Military Ground Systems. The impact of his research results has been recognized through numerous awards by the academic community, as well as through technology adoption in industry and government.