Mapping Pipelines and Simultaneous Localization for Petrochemical Industry Robots

Inspecting petrochemical pipelines is challenging due to hazardous materials, narrow diameters, and inaccessible locations. Mobile robots are promising for autonomous pipeline inspection and mapping. This project aimed to simulate and implement a robot capable of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in an indoor maze-like environment representing simplified pipelines. The approach involved simulating a differential drive robot in Gazebo/ROS, equipping it with sensors, implementing SLAM using mapping, and path planning with move_base. A physical robot was then built and tested by manually driving it in a constructed maze while collecting sensor data and mapping. Sensor fusion of wheel encoders, Kinect camera, and inertial measurement unit (IMU) data was explored to improve odometry and mapping accuracy without encoders. The final map had reasonable correspondence to the true maze despite lacking wheel encoders. In summary, results show the feasibility of using ROS-based SLAM for pipeline inspection if accounting for real-world complexities

Place Categorization and Semantic Mapping on a Mobile Robot

In this paper we focus on the challenging problem of place categorization and semantic mapping on a robot without environment-specific training. Motivated by their ongoing success in various visual recognition tasks, we build our system upon a state-of-the-art convolutional network. We overcome its closed-set limitations by complementing the network with a series of one-vs-all classifiers that can learn to recognize new semantic classes online. Prior domain knowledge is incorporated by embedding the classification system into a Bayesian filter framework that also ensures temporal coherence. We evaluate the classification accuracy of the system on a robot that maps a variety of places on our campus in real-time. We show how semantic information can boost robotic object detection performance and how the semantic map can be used to modulate the robot's behaviour during navigation tasks. The system is made available to the community as a ROS module

Categorization of indoor places using the Kinect sensor

The categorization of places in indoor environments is an important capability for service robots working and interacting with humans. In this paper we present a method to categorize different areas in indoor environments using a mobile robot equipped with a Kinect camera. Our approach transforms depth and grey scale images taken at each place into histograms of local binary patterns (LBPs) whose dimensionality is further reduced following a uniform criterion. The histograms are then combined into a single feature vector which is categorized using a supervised method. In this work we compare the performance of support vector machines and random forests as supervised classifiers. Finally, we apply our technique to distinguish five different place categories: corridors, laboratories, offices, kitchens, and study rooms. Experimental results show that we can categorize these places with high accuracy using our approach

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

Design, Construction, Energy Modeling, and Navigation of a Six-Wheeled Differential Drive Robot to Deliver Medical Supplies inside Hospitals

Differential drive mobile robots have been the most ubiquitous kind of robots for the last few decades. As each of the wheels of a differential drive mobile robot can be controlled, it provides additional flexibility to the end-users in creating new applications. These applications include personal assistance, security, warehouse and distribution applications, ocean and space exploration, etc. In a clinic or hospital, the delivery of medicines and patients’ records are frequently needed activities. Medical personnel often find these activities repetitive and time-consuming. Our research was to design, construct, produce an energy model, and develop a navigation control method for a six-wheeled differential drive robot designed to deliver medical supplies inside the hospital. Such a robot is expected to lessen the workload of medical staff. Therefore, the design and implementation of a six-wheeled differential drive robot with a password-protected medicine carrier were presented. This password-protected medicine carrier ensures that only the authorized medical personnel can receive medical supplies. The low-cost robot base and the medicine carrier were built in real life. Besides the actual robot design and fabrication, a kinematic model for the robot was developed, and a navigation control algorithm to avoid obstacles was implemented using MATLAB/Simulink. The kinematic modeling is helpful for the robot to achieve better energy optimization. To develop the object avoidance algorithm, we investigated the use of the Robot Operating System (ROS) and the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithm for the implementation of the mapping and navigation of a robotic platform named TurtleBot 2. Finally, using the Webot robot simulator, the navigation of the six-wheeled mobile robot was demonstrated in a hospital-like simulation environment

On the Calibration of Active Binocular and RGBD Vision Systems for Dual-Arm Robots

This paper describes a camera and hand-eye calibration methodology for integrating an active binocular robot head within a dual-arm robot. For this purpose, we derive the forward kinematic model of our active robot head and describe our methodology for calibrating and integrating our robot head. This rigid calibration provides a closedform hand-to-eye solution. We then present an approach for updating dynamically camera external parameters for optimal 3D reconstruction that are the foundation for robotic tasks such as grasping and manipulating rigid and deformable objects. We show from experimental results that our robot head achieves an overall sub millimetre accuracy of less than 0.3 millimetres while recovering the 3D structure of a scene. In addition, we report a comparative study between current RGBD cameras and our active stereo head within two dual-arm robotic testbeds that demonstrates the accuracy and portability of our proposed methodology