Autonomous exploration and mapping using a mobile robot running ROS

This paper proposes a practical solution to the autonomous exploration and mapping problem using a single mobile robot. Moreover, the authors implement the proposed scheme within the Robot Operating System (ROS), and validate it experimentally using PowerBot, a real wheeled mobile robot equipped with a 2D laser scanner. In essence, the proposed scheme integrates an efficient particle-filter-based SLAM algorithm, two different exploration strategies, and a path-planning and navigation module. The modular nature of the proposed scheme is intentional and advantageous. It allows the authors to compare the two exploration strategies under investigation objectively and with ease. Finally, hypotheses testing is also used to strengthen the results of the comparative analysis.peer-reviewe

Experiences on a motivational learning approach for robotics in undergraduate courses

This paper presents an educational experience carried out in robotics undergraduate courses from two different degrees: Computer Science and Industrial Engineering, having students with diverse capabilities and motivations. The experience compares two learning strategies for the practical lessons of such courses: one relies on code snippets in Matlab to cope with typical robotic problems like robot motion, localization, and mapping, while the second strategy opts for using the ROS framework for the development of algorithms facing a competitive challenge, e.g. exploration algorithms. The obtained students’ opinions were instructive, reporting, for example, that although they consider harder to master ROS when compared to Matlab, it might be more useful in their (robotic related) professional careers, which enhanced their disposition to study it. They also considered that the challenge-exercises, in addition to motivate them, helped to develop their skills as engineers to a greater extent than the skeleton-code based ones. These and other conclusions will be useful in posterior courses to boost the interest and motivation of the students.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

RUR53: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle for Navigation, Recognition and Manipulation

This paper proposes RUR53: an Unmanned Ground Vehicle able to autonomously navigate through, identify, and reach areas of interest; and there recognize, localize, and manipulate work tools to perform complex manipulation tasks. The proposed contribution includes a modular software architecture where each module solves specific sub-tasks and that can be easily enlarged to satisfy new requirements. Included indoor and outdoor tests demonstrate the capability of the proposed system to autonomously detect a target object (a panel) and precisely dock in front of it while avoiding obstacles. They show it can autonomously recognize and manipulate target work tools (i.e., wrenches and valve stems) to accomplish complex tasks (i.e., use a wrench to rotate a valve stem). A specific case study is described where the proposed modular architecture lets easy switch to a semi-teleoperated mode. The paper exhaustively describes description of both the hardware and software setup of RUR53, its performance when tests at the 2017 Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge, and the lessons we learned when participating at this competition, where we ranked third in the Gran Challenge in collaboration with the Czech Technical University in Prague, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Lincoln (UK).Comment: This article has been accepted for publication in Advanced Robotics, published by Taylor & Franci

Local Generating Map System Using Rviz ROS and Kinect Camera for Rescue Robot Application

This paper presents a model to generate a 3D model of a room, where room mapping is very necessary to find out the existing real conditions, where this modeling will be applied to the rescue robot. To solve this problem, researchers made a breakthrough by creating a 3D room mapping system. The mapping system and 3D model making carried out in this study are to utilize the camera Kinect and Rviz on the ROS. The camera takes a picture of the area around it, the imagery results are processed in the ROS system, the processing carried out includes several nodes and topics in the ROS which later the signal results are sent and displayed on the Rviz ROS. From the results of the tests that have been carried out, the designed system can create a 3D model from the Kinect camera capture by utilizing the Rviz function on the ROS. From this model later every corner of the room can be mapped and modeled in 3

Learning to Prevent Monocular SLAM Failure using Reinforcement Learning

Monocular SLAM refers to using a single camera to estimate robot ego motion while building a map of the environment. While Monocular SLAM is a well studied problem, automating Monocular SLAM by integrating it with trajectory planning frameworks is particularly challenging. This paper presents a novel formulation based on Reinforcement Learning (RL) that generates fail safe trajectories wherein the SLAM generated outputs do not deviate largely from their true values. Quintessentially, the RL framework successfully learns the otherwise complex relation between perceptual inputs and motor actions and uses this knowledge to generate trajectories that do not cause failure of SLAM. We show systematically in simulations how the quality of the SLAM dramatically improves when trajectories are computed using RL. Our method scales effectively across Monocular SLAM frameworks in both simulation and in real world experiments with a mobile robot.Comment: Accepted at the 11th Indian Conference on Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing (ICVGIP) 2018 More info can be found at the project page at https://robotics.iiit.ac.in/people/vignesh.prasad/SLAMSafePlanner.html and the supplementary video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=420QmM_Z8v