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Main Authors: Sudha, Sanjeev Ramkumar, Popović, Marija, Coates, Erlend M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14636
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author Sudha, Sanjeev Ramkumar
Popović, Marija
Coates, Erlend M.
author_facet Sudha, Sanjeev Ramkumar
Popović, Marija
Coates, Erlend M.
contents Mobile robot platforms are increasingly being used to automate information gathering tasks such as environmental monitoring. Efficient target tracking in dynamic environments is critical for applications such as search and rescue and pollutant cleanups. In this letter, we study active mapping of floating targets that drift due to environmental disturbances such as wind and currents. This is a challenging problem as it involves predicting both spatial and temporal variations in the map due to changing conditions. We introduce an integrated framework combining dynamic occupancy grid mapping and an informative planning approach to actively map and track freely drifting targets with an autonomous surface vehicle. A key component of our adaptive planning approach is a spatiotemporal prediction network that predicts target position distributions over time. We further propose a planning objective for target tracking that leverages these predictions. Simulation experiments show that this planning objective improves target tracking performance compared to existing methods that consider only entropy reduction as the planning objective. Finally, we validate our approach in field tests, showcasing its ability to track targets in real-world monitoring scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_14636
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Informative Planning Framework for Target Tracking and Active Mapping in Dynamic Environments with ASVs
Sudha, Sanjeev Ramkumar
Popović, Marija
Coates, Erlend M.
Robotics
Mobile robot platforms are increasingly being used to automate information gathering tasks such as environmental monitoring. Efficient target tracking in dynamic environments is critical for applications such as search and rescue and pollutant cleanups. In this letter, we study active mapping of floating targets that drift due to environmental disturbances such as wind and currents. This is a challenging problem as it involves predicting both spatial and temporal variations in the map due to changing conditions. We introduce an integrated framework combining dynamic occupancy grid mapping and an informative planning approach to actively map and track freely drifting targets with an autonomous surface vehicle. A key component of our adaptive planning approach is a spatiotemporal prediction network that predicts target position distributions over time. We further propose a planning objective for target tracking that leverages these predictions. Simulation experiments show that this planning objective improves target tracking performance compared to existing methods that consider only entropy reduction as the planning objective. Finally, we validate our approach in field tests, showcasing its ability to track targets in real-world monitoring scenarios.
title An Informative Planning Framework for Target Tracking and Active Mapping in Dynamic Environments with ASVs
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.14636