Design and implementation of a real-time autonomous navigation system applied to lego robots

Teaching theoretical concepts of a real-time autonomous robot system may be a challenging task without real hardware support. The paper discusses the application of the Lego Robot for teaching multi interdisciplinary subjects to Mechatronics students. A real-time mobile robot system with perception using sensors, path planning algorithm, PID controller is used as the case to demonstrate the teaching methodology. The novelties are introduced compared to classical robotic classes: (i) the adoption of a project-based learning approach as teaching methodology; (ii) an effective real-time autonomous navigation approach for the mobile robot. However, the extendibility and applicability of the presented approach are not limited to only the educational purpose

Indoor localization of a mobile robot using sensor fusion : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Mechatronics with Honours at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Reliable indoor navigation of mobile robots has been a popular research topic in recent years. GPS systems used for outdoor mobile robot navigation can not be used indoor (warehouse, hospital or other buildings) because it requires an unobstructed view of the sky. Therefore a specially designed indoor localization system for mobile robot is needed. This project aims to develop a reliable position and heading angle estimator for real time indoor localization of mobile robots. Two different techniques have been developed and each consisted of three different sensor modules based on infrared sensing, calibrated odometry and calibrated gyroscope. Integration of these three sensor modules is achieved by applying the real time Kalman filter which provides filtered and reliable information of a mobile robot's current location and orientation relative to its environment. Extensive experimental results are provided to demonstrate its improvement over conventional methods like dead reckoning. In addition, a control strategy is developed to control the mobile robot to move along the planned trajectory. The techniques developed in this project have potentials for the application for mobile robots in medical service, health care, surveillances, search and rescue in indoor environments

A Neural Network Strategy Applied in Autonomous Mobile Localization

In this article, a new approach to the problem of indoor navigation based on ultrasonic sensors is presented, where artificial neural networks (ANN) are used to estimate the position and orientation of a mobile robot.
This approach proposes the use of three Radial Basis Function (RBF) Networks, where environment maps from an ultrasonic sensor and maps synthetically generated are used to estimate the robot localization.
The mobile robot is mainly characterized by its real time
operation based on the Matlab/Simulink environment, where the
whole necessary tasks for an autonomous navigation are done in a hierarchical and easy reprogramming way. 
Finally, practical results of real time navigation related to robot localization in a known indoor environment are shown

Design and implementation of a real-time autonomous navigation system applied to lego robots

Teaching theoretical concepts of a real-time autonomous robot system may be a challenging task without real hardware support. The paper discusses the application of the Lego Robot for teaching multi interdisciplinary subjects to Mechatronics students. A real-time mobile robot system with perception using sensors, path planning algorithm, PID controller is used as the case to demonstrate the teaching methodology. The novelties are introduced compared to classical robotic classes: (i) the adoption of a project-based learning approach as teaching methodology; (ii) an effective real-time autonomous navigation approach for the mobile robot. However, the extendibility and applicability of the presented approach are not limited to only the educational purpose

High accuracy mobile robot positioning using external large volume metrology instruments

A method of accurately controlling the position of a mobile robot using an external large volume metrology (LVM) instrument is presented in this article. By utilising an LVM instrument such as a laser tracker or indoor GPS (iGPS) in mobile robot navigation, many of the most difficult problems in mobile robot navigation can be simplified or avoided. Using the real-time position information from the laser tracker, a very simple navigation algorithm, and a low cost robot, 5mm repeatability was achieved over a volume of 30m radius. A surface digitisation scan of a wind turbine blade section was also demonstrated, illustrating possible applications of the method for manufacturing processes. Further, iGPS guidance of a small KUKA omni-directional robot has been demonstrated, and a full scale prototype system is being developed in cooperation with KUKA Robotics, UK. © 2011 Taylor & Francis

Autonomous navigation of mobile robot using kinect sensor

The problem of achieving real time process in depth camera application, in particular when used for indoor mobile robot localization and navigation is far from being solved. Thus, this paper presents autonomous navigation of the mobile robot by using Kinect sensor. By using Microsoft Kinect XBOX 360 as the main sensor, the robot is expected to navigate and avoid obstacles safely. By using depth data, 3D point clouds, filtering and clustering process, the Kinect sensor is expected to be able to differentiate the obstacles and the path in order to navigate safely. Therefore, this research requirement to propose a creation of low-cost autonomous mobile robot that can be navigated safely

Socially-Aware Navigation Planner Using Models of Human-Human Interaction

A real-time socially-aware navigation planner helps a mobile robot to navigate alongside humans in a socially acceptable manner. This navigation planner is a modification of nav_core package of Robot Operating System (ROS), based upon earlier work and further modified to use only egocentric sensors. The planner can be utilized to provide safe as well as socially appropriate robot navigation. Primitive features including interpersonal distance between the robot and an interaction partner and features of the environment (such as hallways detected in real-time) are used to reason about the current state of an interaction. Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) are trained over these features from human-human interaction demonstrations of various interaction scenarios. This model is both used to discriminate different human actions related to their navigation behavior and to help in the trajectory selection process to provide a social-appropriateness score for a potential trajectory. This thesis presents a model based framework for navigation planning, a simulation-based evaluation of the model-based navigation behavior

Control and Navigation Framework for a Hybrid Steel Bridge Inspection Robot

Autonomous navigation of steel bridge inspection robots is essential for proper maintenance. Majority of existing robotic solutions for steel bridge inspection require human intervention to assist in the control and navigation. In this thesis, a control and navigation framework has been proposed for the steel bridge inspection robot developed by the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) to facilitate autonomous real-time navigation and minimize human intervention. The ARA robot is designed to work in two modes: mobile and inch-worm. The robot uses mobile mode when moving on a plane surface and inch-worm mode when jumping from one surface to the other. To allow the ARA robot to switch between mobile and inch-worm modes, a switching controller is developed with 3D point cloud data based. The surface detection algorithm is proposed to allow the robot to check the availability of steel surfaces (plane, area and height) to determine the transformation from mobile mode to inch-worm one. To have the robot to safely navigate and visit all steel members of the bridge, four algorithms are developed to process the data from a depth camera, segment it into clusters, estimate the boundaries, construct a graph representing the structure, generate the shortest inspection path with any starting and ending points, and determine available robot configuration for path planning. Experiments on steel bridge structures setup highlight the effective performance of the algorithms, and the potential to apply to the ARA robot to run on real bridge structures