Autonomous mobile robot platform for on-the-road navigation

This paper presents a mechatronic development of a new mobile robot platform for autonomous on-the-road navigation. It uses sensor fusion involving the camera, laser range finder (LRF) and odometry to guide and find the free collision path during navigation. The embedded controller system has been deliberately developed to integrate the mechanical parts with the electronics and software algorithms. Microsoft Visual C# and MATLAB are linked together to perform the road recognition calculation via the proposed algorithms. The main processing program in C# is later extended to MATLAB environment for image, signal processing and calculation based on data from the LRF and camera. The linking between C# and MATLAB is done using COM automation server and the data in the client C# program passes it to MATLAB and vice versa

Algorithm to detect roundabout environments for mobile robot based on laser range finder and camera

This research is aimed towards developing an algorithm for detecting road roundabout environments and estimating the collision free-path. Laser range finder (LRF) and camera are combined together to detect the mini-roundabout environments that are developed and built in a laboratory setting. The signal processing of the LRF is accomplished in MATLAB environment using the proposed algorithm to determine the road curbs and find the current position of the mobile robot within the environments. The video processing is performed also in MATLAB to identify the roundabout center when it is detected. The experiments are performed using the developed experimental setup and the data are processed in real-time. The results demonstrate the capability of the algorithm to effectively recognize the roundabout environment