Implementation of Robot Operating System in Beaglebone Black based Mobile Robot for Obstacle Avoidance Application

The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a collection of tools, libraries, and conventions that focus on simplifying the task of creating a complex and advanced robotics system. Its standard framework can be shared with another robotics system that has a similar platform and suitable for being introduced as an educational tool in robotics. However, the problems found out in the current robot platform available in the market are expensive and encapsulated. The development of an open source robot platform is encouraged. Therefore, this research is carried out to design and develop an ROS based obstacle avoidance system for existing differential-wheeled mobile robot. The ROS was installed under Ubuntu 14.04 on a Beaglebone Black embedded computer system. Then, the ROS was implemented together with the obstacle avoidance system to establish the communication between program nodes. The mobile robot was then designed and developed to examine the obstacle avoidance application. The debugging process was carried out to check the obstacle avoidance system application based on the communication between nodes. This process is important in examining the message publishing and subscribing from all nodes. The obstacle avoidance mobile robot has been successfully tested where the communication between nodes was running without any problem

Development of a dodecacopter using Pixhawk 2.4.8 autopilot flight controller

This research focused on the development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of a dodecacopter system. The dodecacopter is controlled through a Pixhawk 2.4.8 firmware�based flight controller. The communication between the dodecacopter and flight controller is connected through wireless communication system. The dodecacopter is well equipped with latest technology from Pixhawk flight controller for efficient and smooth controlling system. The dodecacopter balancing system is using the technology of barometer MS5611 and magnetometer IST8310 sensors. The developed dodecacopter is equipped with 12 Tarot 4006 brushless motors to increase the payload capability. Based on the results, the experiment shows that the dodecacopter can hover and maintain its position with optimum stability. Observation shows that the dodecacopter performances can be increased by using high-powered motors, lighter batteries

Amelioration of paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity in rat by the administration of methanol extract of Muntingia calabura L. leaves

Muntingia calabura L. is a tropical plant species that belongs to the Elaeocarpaceae family. The present study is aimed at determining the hepatoprotective activity of methanol extract of M. calabura leaves (MEMC) using two models of liver injury in rats. Rats were divided into five groups (n = 6) and received 10% DMSO (negative control), 50 mg/kg N-acetylcysteine (NAC; positive control), or MEMC (50, 250, and 500 mg/kg) orally once daily for 7 days and on the 8th day were subjected to the hepatotoxic induction using paracetamol (PCM). The blood and liver tissues were collected and subjected to biochemical and microscopical analysis. The extract was also subjected to antioxidant study using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl-(DPPH) and superoxide anion-radical scavenging assays. At the same time, oxygen radical antioxidant capacity (ORAC) and total phenolic content were also determined. From the histological observation, lymphocyte infiltration and marked necrosis were observed in PCM-treated groups (negative control), whereas maintenance of hepatic structure was observed in group pretreated with N-acetylcysteine and MEMC. Hepatotoxic rats pretreated with NAC or MEMC exhibited significant decrease (P < 0.05) in ALT and AST enzymes level. Moreover, the extract also exhibited good antioxidant activity. In conclusion, MEMC exerts potential hepatoprotective activity that could be partly attributed to its antioxidant activity and, thus warrants further investigations

Adolescent to Adolescent Transformation Program- Nurturing, Enhancing and Promoting Adolescents’ Healthy Habit (ATAP-NEPAH): Curbing Social Problems Among Adolescents in Kelantan Through Peer-To-Peer Health Education

The objectives of ATAP-NEPAH are to enhance and nurture healthy habits among adolescents as well as to empower adolescents in inculcating these healthy habits among them. Health education through peer-to-peer approach is used to instill the knowledge on important areas such as sexual and reproductive health, smoking, substance abuse, illegal street racing (rempit) and mental health. Specific modules were developed by experts (lecturers) in multidisciplinary fields in collaboration with Malaysian Association for Adolescent Health (MAAH), National Population and Family Development Board (NPFDB), Reproductive Health Association of Kelantan (REHAK) and Rhaudatus Sakinah Kelantan. The trained Medical Students Facilitator Team (MSFT) of USM became trainers to secondary one school students. The selected school students were trained by the medical students to become peer educators to their juniors and peers. There was improvement in the readiness level of peer educators, knowledge and attitude towards healthy habits and risky behaviors of other school students after the intervention

Hubungan antara penagihan dadah dengan keganasan rumah tangga

Pertubuhan Kesihatan Sedunia (WHO) dan negara-negara anggotanya melalui Resolusi Perhimpunan Kesihatan Sedunia 49.25 telah mengakui bahawa keganasan adalah masalah awam yang serius dan juga merupakan suatu pencabulan hak asasi manusia. Di Malaysia, istilah “keganasan rumah tangga” merujuk kepada keganasan yang dilakukan oleh pasangan terhadap isteri atau orang yang disayangi. Statistik menunjukkan bahawa kes penagihan dadah meningkat seiring dengan peningkatan jumlah kes keganasan rumah tangga. Objektif kajian ini ialah untuk mengkaji perspektif responden berkenaan keganasan rumah tangga terutamanya dalam kalangan pengguna-pengguna opiat di Malaysia khususnya di Terengganu seterusnya kesan penagihan dadah terhadap keharmonian rumah tangga. Kaedah pengajian prospektif telah dijalankan dalam tempoh enam bulan ke atas 30 orang penagih opiat yang sedang menerima rawatan Terapi Gantian Metadon (TGM) di sekitar Kuala Terengganu dengan menggunakan borang kaji selidik. Analisis deskriptif digunakan untuk menganalisis data dalam kajian kuantitatif. Kajian ini menggunakan perisian SPSS versi 22.0%.Hasil kajian memfokuskan hubungan kekeluargaan, perlakuan, tingkah laku serta emosi di antara respondan dan pasangan. Keputusan menunjukkan bahawa hampir 80.0% responden tidak mempunyai sejarah penderaan sebelum ini dan tidak melakukan keganasan rumah tangga terhadap pasangan mereka. Sebanyak 39.4% responden sangat bersetuju bahawa keganasan rumah tangga adalah jenayah, berbanding 7.1% responden yang tidak bersetuju. Seterusnya, data menunjukkan bahawa 36.0% responden bersetuju bahawa layanan mereka terhadap pasangan berubah setelah mengambil dadah. Data juga membuktikan bahawa sebanyak 22.0% responden merasakan pasangan mereka berasa risau dan takut apabila bersama mereka. Hasil daripada analisis data menunjukkan bahawa kebanyakan responden merupakan individu yang mampu menjalani kehidupan normal sebelum pengambilan dadah. Walau bagaimanapun, setelah pengambilan dadah, perubahan pada tingkah laku dan emosi responden menyebabkan berlakunya keganasan dalam rumah tangga dan terhadap keluarga. Hal ini seterusnya menyebabkan pasangan berasa tidak selamat apabila bersama responden

Automatic Yoghurt Making Using Digital PI for Fermentation Temperature Control

It is hard to observe yoghurt making manually in long time period and in a large scale production. Thus, it is crucial to develop a controlling instrumentation that can give a continous yoghurt making process temperature and pH without any human existence as observer. The aim of this project was to build and develop a yoghurt making machine using digital PI to control the fermentation temperature. The system with PIC18F4550 as the main controller will monitor and control yoghurt making process and fermentation temperature 42oC. An experiment is conducted to compare system performance between on-off control and PI control in fermentation process. The system has already set up and develop for yoghurt making process requirement. The PI algorithm to control fermentation temperature at 42oC give better system performance compare to on-off controller. But, noise signal is occured randomly. The pH circuit also has not functioned properly. So, the end process indicator is not develop using pH value as an indicator but using estimated 8 hours time to finish. Keyword: yoghurt, fermentation temperature, Digital PID, phase angle control, PIC18F455

Development of a driver information system based on onboard diagnostic II communication protocol

An On-Board Diagnostic II (OBD-II) is a standard diagnostic software management that is installed in a Powertrain Control Module (PCM). It provides some useful data to the driver. There are four different devices using the OBD-II protocol exists in the market that can be used as a driver information system. They are personal digital assistant Dyno/OBD-II scan tool, CarChip Fleet, DriveRight 600, and ScanGauge II. Each of these four devices has some limitation in term of supporting all features for live data monitoring, diagnostic trouble code scanning, trip information, and data logging system. Thus, there is a need for a device that supports all these features together with scheduled service reminder. This thesis describes the design and development of a driver information system based on OBD-II protocol. Its hardware and software systems were designed based on four design considerations: upgrade capability, high data storage capacity, back-up capability, and user friendly. The proposed system consists of an 8-bit microcontroller, a buffer memory, a liquid crystal display, a real time clock, a MultiMediaCard, an OBD-II interpreter unit, and power supply unit. This system was successfully interfaced and tested with the PCM of Hyundai Getz car

Arrow-bot: A Teaching Tool for Real-Time Embedded System Course

This paper presents the design of a line following Arduino-based mobile robot for Real-Time Embedded System course at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. The real-time system (RTS) concept was implementing is based on rate monotonic scheduling (RMS) on an ATmega328P microcontroller. Three infrared line sensors were used as input for controlling two direct current (DC) motors. A RTS software was programmed in Arduino IDE which relied on a real-time operating system (RTOS) of ChibiOS/RT library. Three independent tasks of software functions were created for testing real-time scheduling capability and the result of temporal scope was collected. The microcontroller succeeded to handle multiple tasks without missed their dateline. This implementation of the RTOS in embedded system for mobile robotics system is hoped to increase students understanding and learning capability

AN INTEGRATED RRT*SMART-A* ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING THE GLOBAL PATH PLANNING PROBLEM IN A STATIC ENVIRONMENT

The use o = sampling-based algorithms such as Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree Star (RRT*) has been widely applied in robot path planning. Although this variant of RRT offers asymptotic optimality, its use is increasingly limited ber:ause it suffers from convergence rates, mainly when applied to an environment with a poor level of obstacle neatness and a narrow area to the target. Thus, RRT*-Smart, a further development of RRT*, is considered ideal for solving RRT* problems. Unlike RRT*, RRT*-Smart applies a path optimization by removing the redundant nodes from the initial path when it is gained. Moreover, the path is also improved by identifying the beacon nodes used to steer the bias of intelligent sampling. Nevertheless, this initial path is found with termination criteria in terms of a region around the goal node. Consequently, it risks failing to generate a path on a narrow channel. Therefore, a novel algorithm achieved by combining RRT*-Smart and A* is proposed. This combination is intended to s v1/4 itch method-by -method for the exploration process vyhen the new node reaches the region around the goal node. However, before RRT*-Srnart is combined •...ith A*, it is improved by replacing the random sampling method with Fast Sampling. In short, by involving A*. the exploration process for generating the .mart-RRT*'s initial path can be supported. It gives the optimal and feasible raw solution for any complex environment. It is logically realistic because A* searches and evaluates all neighbors of a current node when finding the node with low cost to the start and goal node for each iteration. Therefore, the risk of collision with an obstacle in the goal region is covered, and generating an initial path in the narrow channel can be handled. Furthermore, this proposed method's optimality and fast convergence rate are satisfied

AN INTEGRATED RRT*SMART-A* ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING THE GLOBAL PATH PLANNING PROBLEM IN A STATIC ENVIRONMENT

The use o = sampling-based algorithms such as Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree Star (RRT*) has been widely applied in robot path planning. Although this variant of RRT offers asymptotic optimality, its use is increasingly limited ber:ause it suffers from convergence rates, mainly when applied to an environment with a poor level of obstacle neatness and a narrow area to the target. Thus, RRT*-Smart, a further development of RRT*, is considered ideal for solving RRT* problems. Unlike RRT*, RRT*-Smart applies a path optimization by removing the redundant nodes from the initial path when it is gained. Moreover, the path is also improved by identifying the beacon nodes used to steer the bias of intelligent sampling. Nevertheless, this initial path is found with termination criteria in terms of a region around the goal node. Consequently, it risks failing to generate a path on a narrow channel. Therefore, a novel algorithm achieved by combining RRT*-Smart and A* is proposed. This combination is intended to s v1/4 itch method-by -method for the exploration process vyhen the new node reaches the region around the goal node. However, before RRT*-Srnart is combined •...ith A*, it is improved by replacing the random sampling method with Fast Sampling. In short, by involving A*. the exploration process for generating the .mart-RRT*'s initial path can be supported. It gives the optimal and feasible raw solution for any complex environment. It is logically realistic because A* searches and evaluates all neighbors of a current node when finding the node with low cost to the start and goal node for each iteration. Therefore, the risk of collision with an obstacle in the goal region is covered, and generating an initial path in the narrow channel can be handled. Furthermore, this proposed method's optimality and fast convergence rate are satisfied